문재인 정부 자치분권 추진의 주요 내용과 특징: 다양성, 공동체, 그리고 주민주권

It would be a meaningful work to review the decentralization policy promoted in President Moon’s government and the approaches, values and characteristics of it. The major contents of Moon government’s decentralization policy are included in the Decentralization Master Plan announced in September 11, 2018. For the sustainable development of society in the future, the three main subjects reflected the Master Plan were diversity, community, and citizen’s sovereignty. The idea of approach to these subjects is to enrich democratic competition of political system. Especially, to improve the competition between central government and local government and between citizens and representatives is focused. Diversity was reflected in legislation as expansion of the liberty of citizen’s selection, community as cooperative system improvement, and citizen’s sovereignty as securing and expanding participation rights in local policy process. First, the reflection of diversity was legislated as introduction of special cities, special local governments, and diversification of local government structure. Second, orientation for community was legislated as forming the relationship between central and local organizations not as mutually exclusive but as cooperative-namely, establishment of central and local cooprative meetings, prearrangement system in decentralization policy, and imposition of accompanying responsibility for national integration, etc. Lastly, realization of citizen’s sovereignty was legislated in Local Autonomy Act as specifying the principles of citizen’s autonomy and expanding the political rights of citizens to the local policy decisions and execution processes that affect resident life. It is considered a turning point in institutionalizing the democratic values to have established expansion and improvement of citizen’s liberty in decentralization policy.