Political Crisis in Central Government and Bureaucrats’ Responses in Provincial Government: The Impact of Governors’ Characteristics

• Author: Soonae Park,Don S. Lee
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/10659129211053625
• Published date: 01 December 2022
• Date: 01 December 2022

Article

PoliticalResearchQuarterly

2022,Vol.75(4)1186–1200

©TheAuthor(s)2021

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DOI:10.1177/10659129211053625

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PoliticalCrisisinCentralGovernmentand

Bureaucrats’ResponsesinProvincial

Government:TheImpactofGovernors’

Characteristics

SoonaePark

1

andDonS.Lee

2



Abstract

Scholarshavedebatedthequestionofwhatinfluencesbureaucrats’policyimplementationinprovincialgovernment,

sometakingthetop-downandsomethebottom-upapproaches.However,lesswellunderstoodinthisdebateisthe

impactofgovernors’characteristics,particularlyatatimeofnationalpoliticalcrisis.Giventhattheirroleshavebeen

provenimportantfortheperformanceofprovincialgovernments,thisisasignificantoversight.Tofillthisgap,we

examinetheeffectofgovernors’politicalcharacteristicsonprovincialbureaucrats’responsestothecenterbyleveraging

auniquesetting,thatofpresidentialimpeachmentinSouthKorea.Usingoriginalsurveydataon655civilservantsfromall

17provincialgovernments,gatheredaspartofarepresentativesurvey,wefindthatbureaucratsarelessresponsiveto

thecentralgovernmentafterimpeachment.Ourresultsshowthatthisdifferencebetweenpre-andpost-impeachmentis

drivenbyseveralpoliticalcharacteristics,suchasgovernors’politicalideologyandtenureinoffice.Ourfindingshave

implicationsfortheroleofgovernorsinintergovernmentalrelationsandthemanagementofprovincialgovernments’

performance.

Keywords

politicalcrisis,governors,bureaucraticresponse,experiment,SouthKorea

Inthefieldofintergovernmentalrelations,therehavebeen

debatesovertheeffectivenessofcentralizedcontrol.

1

One

typicalviewpointisthat,giventhehierarchicalnatureof

therelationship,thecentralgovernmentisabletoinduce

lower-levelgovernmentstorespondtoitsinstrumentsof

control(Chubb1985;Wood1991).Often,thenational

governmentcanleverageitsfinancialorlegalsuperiority

overitsprovincialcounterparttoforceitspreferredpolicy

tobeimplementedatthelowerlevel.However,therehas

beengrowingresearchexaminingtheroleoflocalactors

intheintergovernmentalrelationship.Thesescholarsil-

luminatethecentralityoflocalfactorsandcircumstances

indeterminingtheeffectivenessofcentraldirectionover

localgovernance(HedgeandScicchitano1994;Riccucci

2005;Scholz,Twombly,andHeadrick1991;Whitford

2007;Wood1992).

Whileexistingstudiescontributeknowledgeaboutdi-

versecontrolmechanismsfromthecenterandtheroleof

localfactorsinintergovernmentalrelations(Miller1992;

Moe1985;Romzek1990;Wood1988),thereislittlere-

searchinvestigatingtheimpactofprovincialgovernments’

politicalleadership.Muchofpoliticalscienceresearch

tendstofocusongovernors’behaviorandelectoralac-

countabilityinthecitizen-politicianlinkage(Alt,Buenode

Mesquita,andRose2011;FerrazandFinan2011)rather

thantheirbehaviorandresponsesinthecentral-local

governmentlinkage.Inthisarticle,wefillthisgapby

examiningtheimpactofgovernors’characteristicson

centralizedcontroloverlower-levelgovernmentsthrough

thelensesofbureaucratsinprovincialgovernments,par-

ticularlyinthecontextofnationalpoliticalcrisis.Specif-

ically,welookintothethreepoliticalcharacteristicsof

governorsaselectedpoliticians,thatshouldbeclosely

1

GraduateSchoolofPublicAdministration,SeoulNationalUniversity,

Korea

2

GraduateSchoolofGovernanceandDepartmentofPublic

Administration,SungKyunKwanUniversity,Korea

CorrespondingAuthor:

DonS.Lee,GraduateSchoolofGovernanceandDepartmentofPublic

Administration,SungKyunKwanUniversity,Korea.

Email:don.lee@g.skku.edu