District institutionalizes citizens' assembly for direct participation, mandates constitutional review of major policies and budgets; Constitutional City Committee to be established alongside tailored civic education
Seoul's Yeongdeungpo-gu has become the first local government in South Korea to enact and promulgate an ordinance aimed at realizing a "constitutional city," institutionalizing constitutional values as a core principle of district administration.
Yeongdeungpo-gu said it enacted and promulgated the ordinance on the realization of a constitutional city in Yeongdeungpo-gu on Thursday.
The ordinance is designed to embed the foundational principles of South Korea's constitution — including human dignity, freedom, equality and the rule of law — across all areas of district governance. It explicitly designates the protection of residents' fundamental rights and the enhancement of civic sovereignty as the district's top administrative priorities, establishing an institutional framework for the constitutional city initiative.
The enactment follows through on the "Yeongdeungpo Constitutional City Declaration," which District Mayor Jo Yu-jin signed as the first official act of her tenure. The intent is to move beyond a symbolic proclamation and embed constitutional values into the actual processes of policymaking and administrative execution.
The most prominent feature is the expansion of direct democracy through resident participation. The district has written into the ordinance a "minhoe" — a large-scale deliberative forum in which residents directly debate and reach consensus on major district issues.
Participants in the minhoe will be selected through open recruitment and random lottery. Proposals adopted by resident consensus at the forum will go through district policy review and district council budget deliberation before a final decision is made on implementation, and the entire process will be made public. The measure institutionalizes residents' role not merely as beneficiaries of policy but as active participants in agenda-setting and decision-making.
The ordinance also includes mechanisms to strengthen administrative accountability and transparency. Constitutional compliance reviews will be mandatory for major policy decisions, budget formulation, and the enactment or revision of local regulations. Tailored constitutional education will be provided for both public officials and residents, with the aim of rooting constitutional values in day-to-day administration and civic life.
Under the ordinance, a Yeongdeungpo-gu Constitutional City Committee will also be established to deliberate on and evaluate the direction and key projects of the constitutional city initiative. The committee will comprise up to 20 members, including constitutional and human rights experts, district council members and representatives from civil society, and is expected to strengthen the expertise and effectiveness of constitutional city policy.
The ordinance has drawn attention for directly integrating constitutional values into local government administration and for institutionalizing resident participation.
However, the real-world impact of the constitutional city initiative will depend on how faithfully proposals from the minhoe are reflected in policy and budgets, and how rigorously constitutional compliance reviews are conducted for major projects and administrative decisions.
"The promulgation of this ordinance will serve as the most powerful driver of change as Yeongdeungpo-gu pursues its vision of a constitutional city in the ninth term of elected local government," a district official said. "We will work to root constitutional values so that residents' fundamental rights are fully guaranteed."
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