Revisiting the Relevance of Collaborative Governance to Korean Public Administration*

Skepticism as to the relevance of collaborative governance theory and practice is often found in the literature on Korean public administration. It is not always clear, however, why and how collaborative governance is irrelevant. The purpose of this paper is to revisit the relevance of collaborative governance theory to South Korean public administration from the perspective of statelessness of the United States via three theoretical approaches: descriptive and explanatory, normative, and instrumental. Although collaborative governance can generate desirable public values related to participatory democracy, this paper suggests that if we are to apply the practice to Korean public administration, we need to develop an empirical theory of collaborative governance that incorporates the characteristics of a strong state and an instrumental theory of collaborative governance that explicitly considers group dynamics within the indigenous culture. To do this, furthermore, we first need to consider the degree to which Korean civil society appreciates the values related to collaborative governance.