Yooil Bae

Decentralization and collaborative disaster governance: Evidence from South Korea

Abstract Decentralized disaster governance has been gaining much attention with the rising global urbanization rate and the complex nature of the disasters occurring in densely urbanized areas today. This paper studies the case of South Korea, a highly urbanized country with relatively recent decentralization reforms, in order to analyze the evolution of its disaster management system and to draw out implications from its experience. Specifically, it traces the national-level institutional changes in its disaster management, and then closely examines a hydrofluoric gas leakage in the industrial city of Gumi. The finding is that South Korea simultaneously carried out both centralization and decentralization of disaster management, which are not contradictory but rather complementary. Nevertheless, while the country successfully set up an integrated and comprehensive national-level management system, from which disaster governance can successfully be decentralized to localities, it still requires much more developed and consolidated multilevel (vertical) and broader (horizontal) collaboration, which are the preconditions for decentralized disaster governance.

Civil society and local activism in South Korea's local democratization

Recent studies on causes of intergovernmental transformation in old and new democracies have found that decentralization is often the outcome of negotiations between national and local political interests. South Korea is commonly believed to be an exception because local elections and institutions introduced in the early 1990s were, by and large, the product of negotiations among political elites at the centre, without significant inclusion of local actors. However, this article attempts to explicate a hitherto ignored aspect of decentralization reform in Korea: the role of civil society and local activism in the politics of decentralization. In the 2000s, several ‘triggering events’ such as economic instability, democratic consolidation, emergence of civilian leaders, and the growth of civil society provided a strong momentum for the decentralization movement. We demonstrate how civic organizations at both national and local levels have played significant roles in proposing and pushing for decentralization, and argue that the bottom-up movement for decentralization under the Roh Moo-hyun administration was surprisingly well mobilized and institutionalized, especially at the agenda-setting stage.

Making and unmaking of transnational environmental cooperation: the case of reclamation projects in Japan and Korea

Abstract There has been an ongoing debate about how (or through what mechanisms) global environmental norms have influenced domestic political debates that give rise to green policy choices. In particular, effective international environmental cooperation between transnational and domestic NGOs has been recognized as a key to successful environmental movements. In this regard, the central question guiding research on the politics of environmental norms is, under what condition(s) transnational cooperation among NGOs would be more likely to be sustained so as to achieve its goals. This article proposes that one of the mechanisms missing from the debate is a bottom-up approach through which transnational cooperation can be forged by the initiation of domestic NGOs. Drawing on social movement literature, it is hypothesized that domestic environmental NGOs with more resources, challenging ideologies, and more contentious modes of protest to dominant paradigms is more likely to nurture, develop, and sustain effective transnational cooperation for environmental norms. The validity of this hypothesis is demonstrated through the examination of wetland reclamation projects in Japan and Korea.

Mega-events and mega-ambitions: South Korea’s rise and the strategic use of the big four events

The introduction chapter provides a brief overview of the four mega-events discussed in this book—the Summer Olympics (1988), the World Expo (1993), the FIFA World Cup (2002), and the Winter Olympics (2018). We highlight that the four mega-events were used as a political tool serving personal, national and international motives that reflect South Korea’s evolving politics and economic development stages. We contextualize the four mega-events in the context of South Korea’s state-led modern economic development, taking place at the precise moments when the country was making a leap from authoritarian developmental rule to democratic economic powerhouse. We follow the extent to which the mega-events have achieved their goals, including fostering international relationships, promoting national and urban development , and supporting decentralization development aims.

Ideas, interests and practical authority in reform politics: decentralization reform in South Korea in the 2000s

ABSTRACT This paper explains the reason why the hitherto statist country, Korea, has carried out significant decentralization since the 2000s. In explaining the motivation for decentralization, extant literature has focused on the role of parties, bureaucratic politics, democratization, or territorial interests. Yet there is still limited explanation of how the decentralization laws in Korea could be successfully passed in the 2000s, while cental stakeholders still persisted. By tracing the process of decentralization reform in the 2000s, this article demonstrates how structural factors created favourable circumstances and discursive background for institutional change, and how the idea of decentralization, through the idea diffusion mechanism, gave directions for central decision makers to produce a specific path of reform strategies. It also pays attention to the formation of ‘practical authority’ for reform politicians that made it possible to overcome obdurate resistance from central bureaucrats and politicians.

2002 FIFA World Cup and the Rebranding of South Korea

We trace the hosting of the 2002 FIFA World Cup , which played a major role in South Korea’s speedy recovery and national unity after its most challenging economic crisis in modern history. While the opposition criticized hosting the World Cup under dire economic circumstances, the national government insisted that the mega-event could be successful and turn around the crisis. Co-hosting the event with Japan , South Korea was able to not only unite a nation that was hit hard by the crisis, but also rebrand itself as a more advanced nation on the international stage. The key constituency that benefited from this highly visible mega-event and the renewed image of South Korea were the chaebols, emerging as the multi-national companies from then onward.

PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympics

We explore the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics that aims to bring privileged winter sports to South Korea. Although Governor of Gangwon Province had initiated the bid , the national government and chaebols soon played a central role in its bidding and preparation, resulting in local and national tensions. However, they remained aligned on the goal of using the Games to achieve local development; Gangwon Province, known in the past for its mining industry, has long been suffering from underdevelopment. The biggest and unresolved question is whether the Winter Olympics will lead to the long-term local development of PyeongChang . Unless the outcome is a successful one, the ‘legacy ’ of the PyeongChang 2018 could end up being the country’s realization that mega-events are not a panacea for development.

Daejeon Expo ’93 and Paving the Way for Future Development Aspirations

We examine the 1993 Daejeon Expo, staged when the South Korean industry had to go through a fundamental restructuring amid the rising labor costs under the new democracy . Held under the theme of science and technology , the Expo sought to support South Korea’s industrial restructuring process and to expand its international trade markets. The location choice was politically driven. During his presidential election campaign, President Roh had suggested to hold the Expo in Daejeon, hoping to earn votes from the centrally located Choongchung Province. It also presented a good opportunity to showcase his efforts to seek balanced regional development outside Seoul. Additionally, the Expo was expected to finally trigger the growth in South Korea’s key technopole located in Daejeon , where its development had been sluggish.

1988 Summer Olympics and the Rise of South Korea and Seoul

We examine the 1988 Olympics that marked the beginning of South Korea’s pursuit of mega-events. Although South Korea had successfully embarked on a course of industrialization , it was far from being ready to host the Olympic Games. Seoul was still largely a Third World city, with large slums and inadequate urban infrastructure . Nevertheless, the centralized authoritarian state successfully pushed through to bidding and hosting the 1988 Games. The Olympics marked a turning point for Seoul , as well as for South Korea, introducing them to the world. With its astonishing success at both local and national levels, the 1988 Olympics set the tone for international mega-events to serve as a development tool in South Korea, leading to its popularity for many years to come.

Conclusions: The Art of Using Mega-Events for Development

The conclusion chapter discusses the four mega-events as mega-ambitious political and developmental tools, highlighting the ultimate national and local legacies the country has been able to reap. We look at the relationship between the four mega-events and South Korea’s modern development and argue that the events have been more state-centric pursuits than locally driven. Developing our argument further into ‘developmental mega-events’, we explain how the mega-events helped to secure South Korea’s position on the international stage, to boost nationalism , to propel economic growth in export-oriented national companies, and to build cities that accommodate as well as represent South Korea’s progress. They were strategic efforts to take part in long-standing motives, and its developmental objectives and outcomes legitimized the political drive behind the mega-events, despite some of their negative impacts.