사회복지, 지방자치단체 자체사업은 위기인가?-사회복지 분야 세출 분석을 중심으로

초록

There has been ongoing criticism that local government social welfare programs are in crisis. Some argue that due to the increasing financial burden on local governments in response to the expansion of national programs, there is little opportunity to implement their own independent initiatives. Others point out that local governments introduce populistic programs, thereby weakening the community welfare capacity for residents. How are local governments’ social welfare programs changing today? This study seeks to answer this question by analyzing the expenditure of detailed social welfare projects at both metropolitan and basic local government levels. The findings are as follows: First, despite structural limitations in size due to the expansion of national subsidized programs, local governments’ social welfare programs have a higher average annual growth rate than that of the required matching funds. From an expenditure perspective, therefore, it may not be true that local governments lack the financial capactiy to conddut their own progrmas due to matching fund burdens. Furthermore, the burden of matching funds is a significant source of conflict not only between the national and local governments but also between metropolitan and local governments. Second, while cash benefits are rapidly increasing, particularly in metropolitan governments, the growth of expenditures related to support for social welfare agencies-which iss traditionally considered a core responsibility of local governments-has been slow and has recently stagnated. Therefore, the crisis in local government social welfare programs should not be understood merely as decline in scale or proportion. Instead, it can be understood as a result of various factors, including the recent sharp decline in financial capacity, the expansion of large-scale cash-based welfare programs, conflicts over cost-sharing ratios between metropolitan and local governments, limited support for social welfare agencies- fundamental responsibilities of local governments- in addition to the unresolved issues of intergovernmental fiscal responsibility for welfare agency infrastructure investment.

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