[2022 Conditions for Presidential Success] Short Interview with the Author: ②

YouTube Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2f7U3d_blM

Ahead of the 20th presidential election scheduled for March 9, 2022, the East Asia Institute (EAI) launched the project <2022 Conditions for Presidential Success>, targeting presidential candidates, election campaigns, politicians, media, and influencers, and published a book following a working paper series. The nine researchers summarize the conditions for success in leading the executive branch, politics of harmony and coexistence, and balanced national development and communication as 'decentralization, integration, and coexistence.' We present a short interview with the author along with the web publication of the working paper series, which aims to suggest the conditions for the next president's success by analyzing the failures of past presidents.

Chapter 2, "Share Authority and Govern with a Long-Term Perspective" – Jin Park (KDI School of Public Policy and Management, Seoul National University)

■ Author: Jin Park_ Professor at KDI School of Public Policy and Management. After obtaining a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania, he has been affiliated with KDI or KDI School since 1992. He took three leaves of absence to serve as Head of the Administrative Reform Team at the Ministry of Planning and Budget (1998-2001), Director of the Center for Public Sector Research at the Korea Development Institute School of Public Policy and Management (2012-13), and the first President of the National Assembly Futures Institute (2018-20). With a lifelong goal of forming consensus between the left and right as a centrist alternative, he concurrently served without compensation as President of the Future Strategy Institute, an NGO research institute, and Chairman of the Anmin Policy Forum. His areas of interest include government reform and public finance, future studies, conflict resolution, and economic development, and he has consulted for numerous domestic and international governments. His publications include How to Change the Republic of Korea (2020, Leehaksa).

Video Script

If our country's president has failed in economic and social policy, what could be the reasons? There could be various reasons, but the most representative one is that the president's vision is confined to the present. This might be a characteristic of the five-year single-term presidency. Even if serving for five years, the president needs to pursue economic and social policies with a longer-term vision. What problems arise from a short-sighted approach? First, they tend to avoid difficult reforms. Difficult reforms take a very long time to achieve. Sometimes they cannot be completed within five years. However, to achieve quick results and gain popularity within five years, difficult reforms are avoided. Second, they become unafraid of fiscal deficits.

Fiscal deficits do not cause problems in the short term. Their negative effects manifest over the long term, but if the vision is limited to five years, such long-term fiscal deficit problems are not considered. There are various examples of this. For instance, when spending money based on fiscal needs, they focus only on areas where results appear quickly. For example, the most important thing the government should do for the economy in our country is to invest in research and development (R&D). R&D investment should be made in universities. Talented individuals in universities must create new innovations with new ideas, but this takes a very long time.

What is a faster way to achieve results? It is to spend money on companies to create jobs. The government tends to want to support companies rather than basic research in universities. This is because short-term job creation is an immediate concern rather than long-term innovation. Furthermore, when the government has a short-term perspective, it tends to try to beat the market. The market is like a flowing river, and government intervention does not significantly affect it. However, in the short term, government intervention may appear effective. For example, trying to raise the minimum wage too suddenly is an example of this.

Although it may appear on the surface that the government has achieved its goals, in reality, it often causes problems in the long run, leading to negative economic and social impacts. This is because it takes a considerable amount of time to measure performance, and when the president's vision is narrow, there is no room for such long-term performance evaluations. So, how can these problems be resolved? First, the president must distinguish between what the government should do and what it should stop doing.

So far, economic functions have occupied a dominant position in our country. This may have been natural during the process of economic development. However, our economy has now reached the level of a developed country. The economy has grown and become more complex, making government intervention less effective. Therefore, future government functions should reduce economic functions and instead strengthen three functions: public service delivery, safety and order maintenance, and inter-governmental coordination. The president must ensure this.

However, this does not happen automatically. This is because intervening in the market gives power and authority to public officials. Therefore, the president must have the will to transform the government from a developing country model focused on the economy to a developed country model focused on public services. The president must do this throughout their term. This will never happen voluntarily. Therefore, there should be a committee for government reform (tentatively named the Government Reform Committee) to pursue this change in government roles. Once the government decides what to do, the next important question is who will do it. Until now, the executive branch has been the supreme body of government in our country.

However, after determining the government's functions, the executive branch's tasks must be divided. Who should share the authority? First, it must be shared with the National Assembly. The National Assembly aims to foster consensus. Therefore, functions related to coordinating interests and forming consensus should be transferred to the National Assembly, not the executive branch. Until now, our country has been one where the central government handles most national affairs. However, the dynamism of local areas is becoming increasingly important. This is because local governments better understand what local residents prefer.

As mentioned earlier, government functions will increasingly emphasize public service delivery. Local governments can provide public services better than the central government. Therefore, the central government must transfer many services it has provided to local governments. Of course, the necessary funds and personnel must also be transferred to the local level. This may lead to variations in services across different regions. Welfare may differ by region, and education may also differ. This should be a natural state of affairs for the country.

The next president we need is someone who can weaken their own authority and share that authority with other entities such as the market, the National Assembly, and local governments.