Korea provides an excellent model for the investigation of local government leadership in Asia, as a number of stages in the evolution (and reverse) of local autonomy have been present in the course of a single lifetime. Prior to the localization reforms of the early 1990s, there had not been an opportunity for local leaders to exhibit much of the "leadership behavior" typically cited in western scholarship. Furthermore, a Confucian and Buddhist cultural heritage deeply affects the behavior expected of leaders in any type of organization, governments included. There is little question that governance, as opposed to structured government, requires leadership. Devolution of government and decentralization must therefore be distinguished from local autonomy and local governance. "Snapshots" of perspectives on leadership by the citizenry and local public servants captured as part of a long-term study of whether Korean local governance can be realized in the short-term future when there is a perceived absence of leadership by elected and professional governmental elites.
