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What determines senior civil servants’ responsive behaviors to ministers?: Applying mixed-methodology on the relationship between top bureaucrats and ministers in South Korea

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  • Kyoung Eun Kim
  • Heung Suk Choi

Abstract

This study investigates how the relationships between senior civil servants and ministers are formed and how the relationships thus formed shape these civil servants’ responsive behaviors toward ministers. We conducted in-depth interviews and surveys with high-level officials of S. Korean sociocultural ministries, and analyzed the data through mixed methodology to construct a grounded model of the behaviors of the officials vis-à-vis ministers. The results show that the civil servants’ substantive behavior varies from loyalty to tacit resistance, a consequence of the tension between bureaucratic conditions and relations with the minister. In the case of conflicts with ministers, however, senior civil servants tend to become quickly submissive in that they perceive themselves as implementers of ministerial policy and thus as needing to be adaptively accommodative to the political appointees with democratic legitimacy.

Suggested Citation

  • Kyoung Eun Kim & Heung Suk Choi, 2020. "What determines senior civil servants’ responsive behaviors to ministers?: Applying mixed-methodology on the relationship between top bureaucrats and ministers in South Korea," International Review of Public Administration, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(1), pages 22-43, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:rrpaxx:v:25:y:2020:i:1:p:22-43
    DOI: 10.1080/12294659.2020.1728020
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    Cited by:

    1. Serly Lian Mamahit & Wilson Bogar & Marthinus Mandagi, 2021. "Policy Implementation of The Duties and Functions of Family Planning Field Officers (P.L.K.B.) Non-Civil Servant at The Department of Population Control and Family Planning," Technium Social Sciences Journal, Technium Science, vol. 24(1), pages 6-18, October.

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