[Public Voices] The "Local Council Act" to Open the Next Era of Local Autonomy

Imagine this. There is a ‘player’ and a ‘referee’ before a game. The referees for this game were selected by the player. The player also decided the referee operation methods, including the strike zone. Now, the referee only needs to make judgments on the game board designed by the player. The audience watched this entire decision-making process. How much can the audience trust the referee’s judgment? Unfortunately, this absurd scenario, which would be impossible in a real game, reflects the current state of local autonomy and local councils in the Republic of Korea.

The Republic of Korea, which advocates liberal democracy, declares the separation of powers in its constitution. Through laws, it separates the containers of power into legislative, executive, and judicial branches. This is necessary to achieve democratic mutual checks and balances. Today, the National Assembly, the legislative body of Korea, can strictly check and monitor the government because it has independent authority over personnel, organization, and budget under the National Assembly Act, a special law.

The problem is that this obvious and common-sense principle of separation does not apply to local governments. More than 30 years have passed since the revival of local councils in Korea in 1991, but local councils are still subordinate to the executive bodies. The contradiction continues where the organizational authority and budget formulation rights of local councils, which should check and monitor the executive bodies, are held by provincial governors. Although some personnel authority of local councils was made independent by the full revision of the Local Autonomy Act last year, it is only a partial independence. Even now, organizational authority remains in the hands of the Ministry of the Interior and Safety and the executive bodies. Personnel independence without guaranteed organizational authority can only be nominal independence, nothing more and nothing less.

All of this stems from the absence of a Local Council Act. As long as local councils continue to live under the roof of the Local Autonomy Act, which is centered on the executive bodies, it is difficult for local councils to escape the miserable misunderstanding of being ‘subsidiary organs of the executive bodies.’

Local councils are the only legislative bodies in local areas. They are the foundation of grassroots politics. Ordinances made by local councils change the framework of cities and rewrite citizens’ lives. Only local councils can prevent the executive bodies’ reckless actions through checks and monitoring and review budgets to ensure that citizens’ hard-earned taxes are properly used.

Through the enactment of the Local Council Act, local councils can leave behind the long years of subordination and be reborn as truly independent and free bodies, making genuine separation of powers possible. The two pillars of local autonomy, local councils and executive bodies, can achieve a balance of power.

In this regard, September 19, 2023, is likely to be recorded as a monumental day of progress in the history of local autonomy in Korea. The Local Council Act (draft), drafted after repeated discussions and building a broad social consensus by the Korea Council of Chairs of City and Provincial Councils, whose president I served as, was submitted to the National Assembly on this day.

The proposed Local Council Act (draft) focuses on strengthening the inherent responsibility of local councils to ‘monitor and check the executive bodies.’ It specifies concrete provisions to reinforce the authority, responsibility, autonomy, and expertise of local councils, such as independent budget authority for local council expenses, establishment of necessary administrative offices for councils, placement of policy research committee members in negotiation groups, and realization of the assistant (policy support officer) system.

The Local Council Act, which will open the door to the next era of local autonomy and local governance, still faces the final hurdle of passing the plenary session of the National Assembly. We hope that the enactment of the Local Council Act, a long-cherished wish of local councils for 30 years, will be recorded as the final achievement of the 21st National Assembly of the Republic of Korea.

Kim Hyun-gi, Chairperson of the Seoul Metropolitan Council

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