The ultimate goal of citizens' campaigns is to change the society. Because it results from the dissatisfaction with and anger against current social conditions for people to take part in citizens' campaigns, they have been trying to alterate and establish political or social institutions beneficial to social development. The participants for citizens' campaigns believe firmly that the existing distribution pattern of social/political power and wealth is not effective. Therefore, the participants for citizens' campaign are in search of fundamental social change-social structural change. In general, the basic goals of citizens' campaign include the achievement of participants personal interests and the change of current rules, policies, institutions and power relationships.
Theoretical models to explain citizens' campaign are various. In the early stage of citizens' campaign, it mainly focused on economic issues. As the civic sector grows gradually, the need-acknowledge model and the clientele participant model get to be popular in order to explain civic activities. Lately, the social assets mobilization model focuses on the use of social resources in certain local communities and the empowerment model regards deregulation and decentralization of power in a society.
The above-mentioned theoretical models to explain citizens' campaign are forward to social and cultural change ultimately. The current success of civic activities is in part due to previous citizens' campaigns that were probably initial, and political systems that are friendly to civic activities. Also, there have been policy and institutional changes demanded by civic activities and new profits for the participants of citizens' campaigns. But the primary cause of policy/institution change and personal profits is fundamental social change in terms of value and rules.
The main cause of these characteristics in the Korean civic activities is the nature of participation for citizens' campaigns. Specifically, the lack of 'procedural democracy' in terms of human rights and economic equality have made the civic activities in Korea primitive. Democracy can't be equal to the principle of decision by majority meaning minimum processing institution because democracy based on that principle is liable to justify defective representative right that winners in vote express social and general opinion wholly. Therefore, the current type of democracy, representative democracy, should be changed into the participatory democracy that can guarantee civic participation for social change and economic equality.
At last, this dissertation proposes some measures for the activation of civic activities. They are intended to prepare for structural grounds for citizens' campaign for social change. Strictly speaking civil groups, an actor is in political system. So the lackness of system can't help being narrow in public and private sphere, furthermore, the area of civil groups' action The primary measures are as follows:
(1) Citizens' campaign is to correct laws and institutions that are contradictory each other, (2) to grope measures to stop political orientation, centralization and oligarchic management, (3) to organize civil activities at the level of local community for public civil movements and gathering power, 4) to specialize and secure public interests being not total program, as it were, such as shopping mall and civil movements, (5) to make net-works among civil societies to prepare for activating civil groups and the electronic democracy coming soon.
In conclusion, the important characteristics are to look into change of civil society based upon introspection and practice by direct participatory movement. The Solidity of democracy can't be completed with the accomplishment of institution by citizens' positive and voluntary participation.