The government recognizes the fact that a culture establishes the identity of the people and has become the place of social integration. In terms of that, the government has expressed consistently government operation based on culture center for the promotion of national happiness and enhancement of national competitiveness.
Developed countries have been done a lot of efforts in the development of culture through the cooperation, decentralization of the central government, local governments, companies. But in Korea, cultural and artistic roles of policy and resource allocation have not institutionalized between the central government and local governments. Specific regional development programs are low and the support of private sector such as individuals, companies, is also lower compared to developed countries.
As a result, some variety of problems such as regional disparities of cultural facilities, lack of professional staff, over-dependent on the central government etc. were exposed in spite of the efforts of central government and local governments. In this background, this study shows that cultural policy could be the driving force of local development and the study analyzes the status of the local cultural policy and identify the cultural level of local government targeting central government and Daegu city, Gyeongbuk province. Based on this survey, by analyzing the samples of the cultural policy in the United States, Britain, France, Japan, this study was made to seek substantial proposals of cultural policy of local government.
The improvement of effectiveness for cultural policy in local government is as follows. First, disparities of local cultural infrastructure should be eliminated. When regional cultural infrastructure is installed, a variety of variables such as scattered cultural property, population etc need to be considered. Second, the installation of cultural infrastructure in connection with community development is required. In the case of major developed countries, regional economic innovation was promoted by utilizing culture and art-related projects, and the main part of it was the construction of large-scale cultural and artistic space. Third, autonomous cultural policy through decentralization should be promoted. Appropriate, detailed and subspecialized policies are better than uniform support, management, and comprehensive plan of central government. Thus, local governments or cultural organizations need to bring the authority and responsibility from central government. Fourth, using plan of cultural facilities should be made as the population decreases. Also the long-term demand forecasts and using plan of cultural facilities should be prepared against population decline because the population is aging. Fifth, cultural partnerships should be strengthened by the main body of cultural. The roles and partnerships of each subject such as cultural organizations, private sector(individuals, companies), national government, local government should be established. Finally, international exchanges should be strengthened to grow culture to the next level in response to increasing foreigners, the global activity of korean wave, increased international exchanges in the field of sport and the arts, the growth of international corporate.
Due to the unique characteristics of local culture, the culture can have comparative advantages and also can be the most capable and effective fields to drive regional development. Therefore, policies to fit local characteristics should be established for the development of culture itself, enjoyment of cultural life of local people, and even improvement of the quality of life.