Evaluating the Rationality of South Korea’s Fine Dust Policies: A Procedural Analysis of Air Quality Management | Chapter 8 | Geography, Earth Science and Environment: Research Highlights Vol. 8

Air pollution has been a major field of environmental policies in South Korea, like in other industrialized countries. South Korea has achieved rapid economic growth since the 1970s. As a side effect of material prosperity, it has experienced environmental pollution in advance of other developing countries such as Brazil, India, and China. Therefore, emission control policies regarding fine dust have been introduced and executed to solve the air pollution problem. Since 2018, the government of South Korea has strengthened its environmental policies to solve the problem of fine particulate matter in the air. Because of these strict regulations, diesel cars have been replaced with cleaner vehicles, and coal power plants have been shut down. Despite these government efforts, some researchers assert that fine dust programs have failed in Seoul, the capital of Korea. In other words, they conclude that the central and local governments designed and implemented the policies unreasonably. Despite these criticisms, this study attempts to prove that the government has meticulously prepared the regulations on fine particles and that its policies were rational in general. Also, it tries to demonstrate that the policy scheme has been properly established. To attain these research goals, the theory of procedural rationality is adopted. As a result of the analysis, six steps of procedural rationality were identified in the Korean policy on fine dust: problem identification, goal setting, searching for alternatives, consequence prediction, comparison of alternatives, and policy decision. In conclusion, this study provides suggestions for environmental policies in other metropolitan cities, especially in developing countries that suffer from severe air pollution. This study mainly focused on procedural rationality so follow-up studies could be expanded in other metropolitan cities in developing countries.

 

Author (s) Details

 

Sang-hyeon Jin
School of Public Administration, Kyungpook National University, Daegu 41566, Republic of Korea.

 

Please see the book here:- https://doi.org/10.9734/bpi/geserh/v8/4941