국민참여감사의 제도화에 관한 연구

This Article examines the institutionalization of citizen participation in public auditing from a public law perspective, focusing on its theoretical foundations, institutional structure, and the limitations of existing legal frameworks. In representative democracies, citizen participation has traditionally been realized through elections; however, electoral participation alone has increasingly been regarded as insufficient to ensure democratic control and administrative accountability across the full range of governmental action. Against this background, citizen participation has expanded throughout the stages of policy formulation, implementation, and evaluation, and similar participatory mechanisms have recently been introduced in the field of public auditing. In particular, advances in information technology and digitalization have qualitatively transformed the modes and scope of citizen participation. By reducing temporal and spatial constraints, digital environments have enabled citizens to participate more actively not only in policymaking but also in the auditing of public policies and administrative actions. In this context, citizen participatory auditing should be understood not as a marginal procedural experiment, but as a significant institutional challenge that reshapes the democratic legitimacy and accountability of audit systems. This Article first analyzes the theoretical basis for integrating citizen participation into public auditing, drawing on the OECD’s concept of innovative citizen participation and the theory of social audit. It demonstrates that citizen participation has evolved beyond information provision and opinion gathering toward more deliberative and collaborative forms of decision-making, and that such participation can be implemented at different stages of the audit process. The Article then categorizes participatory auditing according to the stages of audit planning, execution, reporting, and follow-up. Building on this analytical framework, the Article examines existing participatory audit mechanisms in Korea, including citizen audit requests, public-interest audit requests, resident audit requests, and citizen auditor systems. The analysis shows that while a relatively broad range of citizen participation is institutionally accommodated at the audit planning stage, participation during audit execution is limited and largely expert-oriented. Participation in the stages of audit judgment and disposition is even more restricted, reflecting a deliberate institutional choice to safeguard the professionalism and independence of audit authorities. The Article concludes that although the institutionalization of citizen participation in auditing may enhance democratic legitimacy and public trust, it must not lead to the dispersion or politicization of audit authority. Citizen participation should therefore be confined to procedural and auxiliary functions—such as information provision and opinion submission—while final decisions concerning audit initiation, assessment, and disposition should remain vested in constitutionally independent audit institutions. Accordingly, the institutionalization of citizen participatory auditing should proceed in a manner that carefully balances democratic control with audit independence.