지방자치단체 기관구성 형태의 선호 요인 연구: 지방공무원의 인식을 중심으로

초록

This study examines the factors shaping the preferences of local civil servants, who will be directly involved in the design and operation of these institutions, for alternative local government institutional forms, in the context of Korea’s 2022 full revision of the Local Autonomy Act, which established a legal basis for local governments to autonomously choose their institutional forms in accordance with local conditions. Unlike previous domestic studies that mainly pointed out the limitations of the nationally uniform system or merely proposed alternative models based on foreign cases, this study provides an empirical analysis of the structural, administrative, and political conditions under which particular institutional forms are preferred. Institutional forms are classified into three types: separation, integration, and hybrid. Using ordered logistic regression, the study investigates the effects of regional, community, administrative, and political factors, as well as the moderating role of regional political orientation. The analysis combines survey data (soft data) from 185 local civil servants directly in charge of institutional, organizational, and council-related affairs with objective administrative and electoral indicators (hard data) drawn from KOSIS, Local Finance 365, and the National Election Commission, thereby enhancing the objectivity and reliability of the analysis. The results show that structural regional characteristics do not directly influence influence institutional preferences. In contrast, sense of communality has a significant effect on preferences for separation-type institutions, while administrative capacity significantly affects preferences for hybrid forms. Political factors, particularly power relations, exhibit differential effects across institutional types, and regional political orientation moderates the effects of administrative capacity and power relations on institutional form preferences. These findings suggest that institutional preferences are shaped less by regional conditions than by community characteristics, administrative capacity, and political context. The study highlights the need for differentiated approaches to institutional diversification that take regional characteristics and political environments into account.

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