Administrative Reform In The Context Of Constitutional Government Development In Republic Of Korea And Its Indications To China

The process of democratic politics in the Republic of Korea exhibits both historical traces imposed by the West with an alternate and recursive democratic progress, and successful reform and practice through continuous exploration based on its unique tradition and political culture. Its experience of political reform and economic development under the constitutional government provides positive evidence for public administration of contemporary governments. Despite the glaring differences in logical starting-point and basic political philosophy so far as political progress is concerned, paths of development in China and Korea are surprisingly identical—both being recursive. It could be of benefits for innovating China's governmental management to study Korea's process of administrative reform against its constitutional governmental reform as the two countries have been bound in history and in reality.On the basis of a tentative review of the evolution of political system in the Republic of Korea since the 1950s, the thesis, with an analysis of the cultural and political background and its historical inevitability in its constitutional governmental reform and democratic process, discusses the importance and influence of Korea's public administration and public policy in Korean social, political, economic and cultural developments, thus summing up the measures and experience in terms of governmental management reform, which include administrative characteristics, authoritarian rule, decision-making process, administration culture and behavior, government performance management, local autonomy, democratization of public administration, anti-corruption, etc. against the background of transformation from a traditional society to an industrialized and democratic one.From the above analysis on Korea's successful experience in constitutional government reform and the limitations of democratic politics, the author holds that the success of Chinese governmental administration reform lies in the optimization of an overall reform environment, and legislation is called for to precede it with a focus on new concepts and in proper sequence. And finally, performance management of the government should be included in the process of administration reform.