Exporting South Korea's e‐Government Experience

• Author: Inchan Choi,Mark C. Hoffman
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/puar.12822
• Published date: 01 September 2017
• Date: 01 September 2017

794 Public Administration Review • September | October 2017

Exporting South Korea ’ s e-Government Experience

Danny L. Balfour , Editor

Inchan Choi

Yeungnam University, South Korea

Mark C. Hoffman

Grand Valley State University

Mark C. Hoffman is associate professor

of public administration and associate dean

of the College of Community and Public

Service at Grand Valley State University in

Grand Rapids, Michigan. He has published

in

Social Science Computer Review,

Administrative Theory & Praxis, Government

Information Quarterly

, and

Public

Administration Review

. He holds a Ph.D. in

urban studies from Cleveland State University.

E-mail : hoffmanm@gvsu.edu

Inchan Choi is a researcher with the

Institute for International Development

Cooperation at Yeungnam University in

Gyeongsan, South Korea. He holds a Master

of Public Administration degree from Grand

Valley State University.

E-mail: inchanicious@gmail.com

Tina George Karippacheril , Soonhee Kim , Robert

P. Beschel, Jr. , and Changyong Choi , Bringing

Government into the 21st Century:  e Korean

Digital Governance Experience ( Washington, D.C.:

World Bank Publications, 2016) . 184 pp. $28.37

(paperback), ISBN: 978-1464808814.

I n 2018, South Korea will celebrate the fortieth

anniversary of its e-government initiative. When

the “First Five-Year Basic Plan for Administrative

Computerization” was launched in 1978, only 35

percent of Korean households had phones and

the country was the world ’ s leading manufacturer

of cheap black and white televisions. Despite this

inauspicious start, South Korea ranked thirteenth in

the UN E-government Development Index created in

2003. Only seven years later, South Korea topped the

biennial index. They did so again in 2012 and 2014,

before falling to third in 2016. Not coincidently,

South Korea now boasts the world ’ s fastest average

internet connection speed. South Korea also

successfully competes in the global premium smart

phone and ultra-high-definition television markets.

What enabled this small, resource-poor country

to hurdle into a leadership position in the delivery

of public services through the information and

communications technologies (ICT)? Experts from