• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.366-380
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• 2015

Park Geun-hye Administration has been leading HOPE Area(Living Happiness Sphere) policy as a part of strategy for the regional development. Recent study on HOPE Area policy mainly focuses on how to enhance cooperation among local governments or how to activate the HOPE area. However, as far as I found, the research on how HOPE area guideline as an institution is made and how HOPE area, the effect of the institution, is demarcated has not well been conducted. With based on these issues, this article aims to identify and examine the process of the HOPE area guideline-making and the designation of the HOPE area. For this purpose, new institutionalism is utilized for the analysis. The guideline was made through competition and compromise among a few parties concerned rather than a decision by unitary elite group, and the final outcome of the process reflected the balanced development strategy more than the growth pole development strategy. There was a tendency that the local governments try to make many HOPE areas by overlapping the HOPE areas, which are the outcomes of the bottom-up approach. In Seoul metropolitan area, a new type of HOPE area was introduced one year later than the other local regions.