Theory and application of urban governance: The case of Seoul

late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. In the field of urban public administration, the former period, during which many large technical systems were introduced into cities, is associated with a progressivism that focused on professionalism, impersonality, the inputs rather than outputs of public organizations, and bureaucratic adherence to procedures and rules. This doctrine was introduced and fortified by the perceived failure of either the market or the state to provide adequate public services. In the current era, characterized by the explosion of information and communications networks overlaid on the networks of the earlier era, public administration relies on a fusion of the private and public sectors, an emphasis on results, and a shift from hierarchy to teamwork. This grand paradigm shift has been termed a shift “from government to governance” or “governance without government.” Whereas the administrative doctrines of the earlier period grew out of the failures of the industrial state, the new paradigm has been driven by a perceived failure of government, resulting from excessive and irrational government intervention. The waves of globalization and localization have swept this largely American doctrine into Korean public administration. Since the advent of Y.S. Kim to the Korean presidency in 1992, efficient and