"Let's Change the Administrative Paradigm with Residents' Power" Publication of 'Moduui Minjujuui'

Jo Jaehak, Former Chair of Eunpyeong-gu Participatory Budget Committee
Publishes Book 'Moduui Minjujuui' Capturing Participatory Budget Implementation
"Participatory Budgeting, The Only System for Residents to Exercise Authority"

Jo Jae-hak, CEO of the Regional Leadership Center Together, is speaking at the publication celebration of his book "Democracy for All" on the 30th of last month.
Photo by Joohee Kang kjh818@asiae.co.kr

[Asia Economy Reporter Kang Juhee] A book launch event for "Democracy for All," which covers the resident participatory budgeting system and resident autonomy, was held on the 30th of last month.

The author, Jo Jaehak, CEO of the Regional Leadership Center Together, served as the chairperson of the resident participatory budgeting committee in Eunpyeong-gu, Seoul, from June 2015 to September 2018, and has been dedicated to realizing participatory budgeting and resident autonomy. The resident participatory budgeting system refers to a system where residents directly participate in all processes of local government budget planning, execution, and evaluation.

"Democracy for All" contains the process through which CEO Jo has worked hard to practically implement participatory budgeting and resident autonomy over more than 20 years of activities in various local communities.

At the book launch event, CEO Jo emphasized the participatory budgeting system, saying, "It is the only system where residents can practically participate in regional changes and exercise authority," and added, "It is a very important system that fundamentally changes the administrative paradigm where sovereign citizens make demands and residents' demands are reflected in decisions."

The book "Democracy for All" by Jo Jae-hak, CEO of the Regional Leadership Center Together./Photo by The Bom

Regarding why he worked for 3 years and 3 months without pay as the chairperson of the participatory budgeting committee for Eunpyeong-gu, CEO Jo explained, "It was always regrettable that when talking about participatory budgeting cases, only foreign examples were mentioned. I thought, 'We can do it too,' and 'Maybe we can try it.'"

He continued, "After discussions with then District Mayor Kim Wooyoung, an opportunity was created to develop a good model for participatory budgeting in Eunpyeong-gu, spread it to society, and build solidarity. Among residents, I was sometimes called a so-called 'crazy person.' From one perspective, it might have seemed like a reckless challenge," he added.

Regarding the difficulties of the participatory budgeting system, CEO Jo said, "There are parts in reality where the administration does not readily accept residents' demands," and emphasized, "It is necessary to eliminate parts that have been done out of habit in the past but were ineffective, and to have projects that can accept residents' voices."

He also defined resident autonomy as "all activities where residents, as the parties involved, solve local problems themselves," and said, "Resident autonomy committees inherently have both 'autonomy' and 'participation' simultaneously. It must develop into a stage of cooperative governance where administration and the private sector share authority horizontally for its true meaning to come alive."

Furthermore, he stated, "Rather than expecting someone outstanding to solve our problems on our behalf, residents should be able to lead the authority and budget held by the administration."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.