A Study on the Reality of Democratization in Eup, Myeon, and Dong: Focusing on the Politicization of Resident Autonomy

This study focuses on the lower administrative agencies of local governments, such as eup, myeon, and dong. This is because the level of democratization of eup, myeon, and dong is considered to have a decisive impact on democracy at the local government (basic and metropolitan) and national levels. However, although resident autonomy has been an agenda in our society for a relatively long time, it is difficult to evaluate that the residents’ autonomy capacity has actually been strengthened in proportion to it. Therefore, this paper aims to examine the structural background of this phenomenon and seek a new transition by diagnosing the democratization status of eup, myeon, and dong. Under this awareness of the problem, this paper examines resident autonomy councils from the perspective of democratization of eup, myeon, and dong, focusing on the legal and institutional environment surrounding resident autonomy, the relationship between resident autonomy and administration, and especially the contradictory situation regarding the demand for political neutrality. The results of the analysis show that the current situation of resident autonomy councils is that political influence imposed ‘from above’ is acknowledged as it is, while voluntary, subjective, and autonomous politics ‘from below’ are not permitted. Therefore, the democratization of eup, myeon, and dong depends on how to make ‘politics from below’ come alive while maintaining ‘electoral neutrality,’ and this is ultimately possible only when the residents’ autonomous councils can transform into ‘political public sphere,’ which is the main argument of the paper.