GOVERNANCE AND POLICY PERFORMANCE IN KOREA

With the successful economic development of the East Asian tigers, it has been taken for granted that insulating the policy process from social influences results in better policy outcomes. However, empirical studies conducted since the 1990s on both developing and developed countries cast doubt on this assumption. Instead, good governance has emerged as an alternative to enhance the government's policy outcomes and engineer sustainable development, which is defined as the formal and informal institutions in which the state, market, and civil society form an egalitarian network to make and implement policies in a democratic and transparent manner. The three variables of the governance model-namely, social trust, local governance, and transparent and open policymaking-could enhance the policy process in the era of democratization. Using a case study of the Korean government's selection process for finding a radioactive waste repository site, the authors empirically show that the governance approach generates successful policy outcomes in the era of democratization.