佛蘭西와 韓國의 行政區域改編

Abstract

This paper is focused on Administrative District Reform in France and Korea. Local Gov’t Reform Is a Must, but not in Haste Local government reforms which would scrap the municipal and provincial system and integrate city,county and district zones, appear to be gaining momentum after the ruling Grand National Party voiced intent to discuss the plan following a decision by the main opposition Democratic Party to put in on the party platform. For example, Gyeonggi Province would be scrapped, while Suwon, Hwaseong and Osan would be integrated into a single district. The format would regroup 16metropolitan cities and 230 cities, counties and wards into 60 to 70 metropolitan cities. If that happens, the present administrative structure?- central government;metropolitan city (si) or province (do); city, county (gun) or district (gu); town (eup), township (myeon) or village (dong) -- will be simplified into central government; metropolitan city; county, town, township or village. During the 17th National Assembly in 2006, a subcommittee reached a similar agreement but conflicts of interest, expected costs and predictions of confusion kept it from being implemented. There are bound to be problems if an administrative zoning system dating back to the age of the horse is to remain in effect in the age of the high-speed Internet. It is said to take between eight and 10 days for a public notice to go from central government to a village office and between 11 to 49 days for a response to come back. Among the 230 cities and counties, 54 have populations of less than 350,000inhabitants, and 12 less than 30,000. Yet each of them have their own deputy county chiefs and vice city mayors, general affairs offices, financial offices,health clinics and all the facilities required by law for each administrative zone. In Yeosu city, which covers Yeocheon city and Yeocheon county, the number of public servants fell from 2,044 in 1998 to 1,768. Out of 43 towns and counties with less than 50,000 inhabitants, 28 have public sports stadiums that are idle all year long. Plus many local governments are unable to build roads or repair streams since they are too small in administrative size. We need to increase the scale of local government to build schools, landfills and crematoriums effectively. Inefficient operation has become a problem with each small town and country operating its own little water purification plant and sewage facility. There are no fewer than seven different festivals commemorating Admiral Yi Sun-shin in South Gyeongsang and South Jeolla provinces. That is why such festivals only draw public servants and street vendors. Integrating local governments is a prerequisite to make them more independent and competitive with their rivals in China and Japan.