Administrative reform is generally recognized as the effort to enhance the rationality of administrative structure, institution and behavior, especially, the public bureaucracy. Therefore by effectuating public bureaucracy according to the social, political and economic change administrative reform is legitimized. But administrative reform is difficult to implement even in Western systems. Many common obstacles to administrative reform come from within the bureaucracy itself. These obstacles, which many include resistance of staff and line personnel to reform ideas, incompatibility with existing systems, lack of adquate commitment and support, contribute to the wide gap between proposed and executed bureaucratic change. It is due to "Archilles Heel" of administrative reform, that is, implementation of reform named by G.E. Caiden. In the most of cases administrative reform is targeted toward the public bureaucracy. The group seizing political power tries to control the bureaucracy for performing political goal, that is, maintaining, enforcing and enlarging their power. But generally bureaucracy has autonomy to some extent from political power group. This autonomy of bureaucracy can be divided into the bureaucratic autonomy of instrumental bureaucracy in the Third World and administrative autonomy of institutional bureaucracy in the Western Europe. This is very important in recognizing the target of bureaucratic reform. This autonomy of bureaucracy is implemented in the process in which administrative reform is oriented toward the bureaucratic change. Therefore, whether or not bureaucratic change is performed is depended to some extent upon how much the political power can control the autonomy of bureaucracy. Administrative reform in Korea has not been for rationalizing the administrative apparatus or bureaucracy and not the outcome of the process of political interaction, or the adaptaton to environmental change in public administration, but for controlling the bureaucracy according to political goals. Administrative reform in Korea is characterized by the political power structure. This derived from the high dependency on the bureaucracy of each regime. The more dependent on the bureaucracy the political power is in maintaining the power, the more necessary the control of it is. To control the instrumental or institutional bureaucracy each regime dependent strongly upon the political power group tried to reform bureaucracy. Bureaucracy is a target of administrative reform. At the same time, it is the subject of reform implementation. To succeed administrative reform, it is necessary to recognize autonomy of bureaucracy. In this thesis as target of administrative reform autonomy of bureaucracy that is divided into Western Europe, the Third World and Korean is analysed theoretically.