A Review on Rural Development Policies of the Participatory Government

참여정부 농촌개발정책의 회고

This study has been carried out in order to examine the characteristics and rationales of the rural development policies of the President Roh Moo-Hyun's 'Participatory Government. The study is summarized into two different directions: characterization and rationalization. Characteristics of the government's rural development policies during the President Roh Moo-Hyun's 'Participatory Government (2003-2008) were three folds. First, the government has been more concerned with rural income level problems than those of living-environment standards. Second, the effect of the government's rural development policies has depended heavily upon both 'green tourism' and 'regional renovation'. Third, it has emphasized the applications of bottom-up approach particularly. This study found out a couple of problems about the rationales of the recent rural development policies; First, the developmental potentials and effects of policy measures which designate the rural green tourism, the regional renovation, and the bottom-up approach etc. were all over-estimated. Second, the structure of recent rural development policies was not vivid enough. Policy targets and measures have been proposed very vaguely; therefore, they have caused difficulties in identifying the actual feasibility and appropriateness of the rural development policies.