Research On The Enlightenment Of The Local Autonomy Reform Of Saemaul Undong To The Chinese Village Autonomy

In the 1960 s,Korea planned and executed two economic development projects.After 10 years of endeavor,the once in near collapse Korean economy had achieved rapid development,the industrialization was in a fast pace.On the contrary,Korean agriculture was stagnant,farmers had very low income,the difference between cities and rural areas were increasing,village population was streaming towards cities and domestic conflict was gradually widening,all of which were severely hindering Korean economic development.In order to improve the poor situation of villages,in 1970 Korea had formally implemented the “Saemaul Undong”.After 10 years of the movement,on the material side,farmers' income had been increased,rural areas had overcome the food shortages and basically got rid of starvation,living conditions had also been improved;on the political culture side,democracy became prevalent in rural areas,thanks to the propagation and education of Saemaul Undong,grass roots democracy was developed,residents en masse directly involved in democratic decision making and villagers resolved village affairs themselves;on the spiritual quality side,after being baptized by the movement of spiritual enlightenment,the villagers had higher comprehensive quality,abandoned old living habits,cultivated positive spiritual attitudes,as well as changing their structure of ideology,redefining the correct view of the state,the nation and the values.However,the Saemaul Undong had controversies either.First of all,the Saemaul Undong was a top-down mobilization mechanism organized by the government,therefore it was prone to political events.With the death of Park Chung-hee and the succession of political power in the 90 s,the nature of the Saemaul Undong had changed into a nongovernmental organization,at the same time being continuously under political interferences.Secondly,the Saemaul Undong neglected the local autonomy and decentralization of power,merely focusing on the economic efficiency and the prosperity tasks.Lastly,the Saemaul Undong lacked environmental protection awareness,only focusing domestic economic development and ignoring the environmental elements.This article emphatically analyzed the interdependency between the local autonomy and the Saemaul Undong via discussing the ideological origin,development processes,actual contents and the assessments of the Saemaul Undong,and proposed a scheme for local autonomy reform along with the analyses of its feasibility.On top of that,with the historical lesson from the Saemaul Undong,the article provided avenues for prosperity and some inspirations for our country's villages' autonomy development.