현대 한국에서 자유주의의 전개과정: 헌법규범과 헌법현실의 괴리와 극복과정을 중심으로

The purpose of the paper is to examine how liberalism has been introduced and developed in Korea after liberation. Liberalism emerged in struggle to limit the power abuse of the absolute king in western world. Liberalism has also been grown in struggle with the authoritarian regimes in Korea. However, Korea has its own, historically particular experiences such as being dominated by Japanese colonialism and division of fatherland between South and North Korea. Therefore, Korean liberalism has had to be much influenced by nationalism and anti-communism. This paper would like to examine how the differences of historical experiences between western world and Korea have influenced on the making of the characteristics of Korean liberalism. Firstly, this paper divides liberalism into political dimension (how much the basic right of the individual can be secured from the state power) and economic dimension (how much the state intervenes into the market), and will examine how each dimension has been developed. Secondly, this paper will examine the development process of Korean liberalism with relation to the discrepancy between the constitutional norms and the constitutional reality which is one of the important characteristics of Korean liberalism. Thirdly, there were similarities as well as differences between the ruling and the opposition group in Korea under the authoritarian regimes. These commonalities, collectivist characteristics, have continuously had an impact on the newly emerging ruling group which was transformed from the past opposition group after democratization, especially after the emergence of DJ regime. As a result, this paper argues, liberalism still remains an unfinished project in Korea.