헌법개혁과 정치개혁 ― ‘헌법’과 ‘정치’의 연결지점에 대한 심층 분석과 대안

After the democratic opening in 1987, there have been so many political reforms in South Korea, focusing on the electoral, party, and congressional reforms. All of the presidents and national assembly have tried and implemented the reforms in those parts from Roh Tae-Woo to Roh Mu-Hyun administration. But the current situation of South Korean democracy showed us that those reforms are not so effectively successful. Still the power of the president is so imperial and unilateral. However that of the national assembly is relatively weak. The relations of the president and the national assembly are so often under the situation of gridlock and immobilism. The imperial president violated occasionally the principle of separation of power and check and balance Why? What are the problems of the reforms? Why didn’t the many political reforms result in so effective and successful outcomes? Viewing from the relational dynamics of constitution and politics, the critical limitations of South Korean democracy came from the constitutional system itself, not from the representative politics. Then without the fundamental reform of the constitutional system and presidential power, any kind of political reforms including election, party and national assembly are not meaningful. First of all, considering the plural party system, it needs to have the final election in the presidential election. The turnout of the voting is really low, bringing about the crisis of representation. But, right after the inauguration, the president change suddenly into imperial. Secondly the electoral cycle and term of the president and national assembly should be rearranged. The single-term system of the president should be abolished, and allowed the reelection for the second-term. Thirdly one more crucial reform is the introduction of the midterm or off-year election during the term of president. Finally a serious enlargement and strengthening of the national assembly is really critical and vital, including the enlargement of proportional representation. Without it, no one organization of the government can check the imperial power of the president as a balancer. Comparing with the historical development of the politics of representation in South Korea, and the advanced democratic countries like the members of the OECD as well, based on the proportion of population, the number of the national assembly should be at least from 500 to 818. It is really crucial.