ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses how modern Korean public administration has evolved from a weak government system in the nineteenth century to an authoritarian bureaucratic state that led to fast economic development in the postwar period. On May 10, 1948, general elections were held in the southern half of the Korean peninsula. Korean public administration can be divided into four stages: public administration before the Republic of Korea, nation building, the modern bureaucratic state, and the “debureaucratized” democratic state. Korean administrative culture has been strongly influenced by Confucianism. Korean administrative culture rooted in Confucianism is characterized by the emphasis of such values as “face,” “familism”, interpersonal networks, paternalism, group orientation, and the sense of moral obligation. Most management and business practices are performed in the predominant context of such familism. The December 18, 1997, presidential election was significant in Korean history because it signaled the first peaceful, democratic transition of power from a ruling party to an opposition party in Korean history.
