With the emergence of a military government, the regional system was changed to fit the new order. The existing resident representative system based on eup(邑) and myeon(面) units was abolished, and appointments from the central government focusing on gun(郡) units were enforced. This direction for reorganization of the regional system set by the military government was suggested by the Regional Administration Research Group within the Ministry of Home Affairs. It was intended to create efficiency and a systematic structure, to discontinue the regional election system, and to organize administrative districts and integrate regional syndicates into them. However, intellectuals expressed their concerns that such a new regional system would shut down opportunities for regional residents to participate in politics. The conflict set in motion by the initial systemization process of the military government became much more pronounced when a discussion was initiated regarding the appropriate regional system for a democratic government. The debate started in early 1962, and focused on whether the central government and regional authorities should continue to operate in a system of unified administrative integration, or to implement decentralization. Intellectuals who emphasized the independent role of the region itself argued for a resident self-governing system as they believed that regional elections would refresh the democratic consciousness of regional residents and prevent dictatorship of the central government from being imposed upon them. However, other intellectuals pointed out that such estimate was overlooking the socio-political inconsistency of the Korean society, and that a public administration governing system should be maintained until the national goals of modernization and unification had been achieved.
In the midst of such conflict, the military government did not participate in drafting the new regional governing law of the democratic government, and the Temporary legislation for regional government policy was continued as it had been. The military government also filled the gap in regional politics caused by the discontinuation of regional elections and the abolishment of the regional council by strengthening the administrative management over regions. To this end, it introduced a planning system in regional administration, and implemented the unification of a supervision system for agricultural regions, so as to weaken regional politics and to establish the superiority of public administration.