Entering the era of governance in the 21st century, Korea has experienced remarkably increasing participation of the civil society, particularly NGOs, in public policy and intensified demands for participation in the government\'s policy for patriots and veterans affairs. Despite the development of patriots and veterans supporting system in quantity and quality, various sectors in Korean society have incessantly demanded further expansion of the system and favorable policies for patriots and veterans. Some civil groups even went into violent demonstrations. The article proposes a state-centered governance model for the patriots and veterans policy that could absorb the explosive desire for civil participation and the greater demands by interest groups related to the system that supports patriots and veterans, and enhance the public acceptance and the legitimacy of the government policy, by institutionalizing civil participation while maintaining the steering capability of the state. The state-centered governance model refers to a policy network formed by the government and non-governmental organizations with government\'s initiatives in steering and coordinating national consent on a public good. In general, governance means co-governing by the government and non-governmental actors in which government\'s dominant role diminishes while civil participation in the public sphere increases. It is, however, too early either to introduce the society-centered governance or to work on equal terms between the government and non-government organizations in Korea because the civil society in Korea is not mature so much as the ones in advanced countries in Europe. Therefore, in the Korean context, the state-centered governance model is more appropriate in order to limit and settle conflicts resulted from individual pursuit of private good by non-governmental actors, while guaranteeing civil participation in the establishment of government\'s policy for patriots and veterans. Such governance model not only strengthens the position of the policy network for patriots and veterans affairs, based on cooperation and harmony between the government and the civil society, but also enhances the governing capacity in the phase of policy implementation, by absorbing various interests of different social groups. The government, which relied chiefly upon the official legal rights in the past, now can ultimately consolidate its capacity to successfully develop and implement the policy for patriots and veterans affairs by obtaining legitimacy through interactions with the civil society and further promoting decentralization and democratization in the policy making process. The patriots and veterans supporting system in Korea has been fluctuated by the natures of different regimes which have politically used it for their own purpose. Particularly, the changing objectives of the system reflect the chaotic state of Korean politics. Such changes and disorder in the government\'s policy have made the public skeptical of the legitimacy of the system for patriots and veterans and become a barrier to setting the patriotic spirit and culture in the daily lives of the people of Korea. Now, the Roh Mu Hyun administration that advocates \"democracy with the public\" as one of the government\'s goals has an opportunity to change the structure of decision-making in the patriots and veterans supporting system with the participation of the civil society, thus overcoming the governments\' monopoly on the process in the past.