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Enhancing the role of local council

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1.4 Minutes

Since the restoration of the local autonomy in Korea in 1991, the imbalance of the power between local councils and the executives has been pointed out as one of its deficits.  As an effort to address the issue, experts from abroad and home gathered together in Seoul, November 6, to discuss ways on how to enhance the role of local council.

During the international conference entitled “Enhancing the role of local council in the process of local politics” and co-organized by the Center for Local Autonomy at Hanyang University and the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom Korea Office (FNF), the role and challenges of the local council in different countries, i.e. Switzerland, Germany, the US and Korea, were presented and lively discussed among participants from academia and field as well.

In his keynote speech, Prof. Dr. Jürgen Morlok, Chairman of the Board of Trustees and Finance Committee, FNF stressed the importance of the “civic proximity” between members of local council, citizens as well as civil society groups.  Based on the principle of the subsidiarity for the relations between the central and local governments, he pointed out the need to increase financial autonomy of the municipalities and also the role of the local council in setting up their budget.

Dr. Oliver Dlabac from the Zurich University explained on the Swiss municipal parliaments and the challenges posed by expanding public tasks and New Public Management administrative reforms. According to him, the Swiss system represents better the sovereign citizenry, but the poorly remunerated and poorly cherished representative laymen seem ill-equipped for undertaking their professional tasks.

As for the German case, Prof. Dr. Erik Schweickert, local councilor and deputy mayor of Niefern-Öschelbronn, analyzed three challenges which need to be tackled in order to strengthen the local autonomy in Germany; difficulties getting enough candidates in the candidate list, dealing with citizen’s action committees, and the balance between local council and mayor.