민주주의 정치이론과 헌법원리: 자유주의적 이해를 넘어

Few terms have a variety of meanings like ‘democracy’ does. In a democratic society, individuals should not be impotent beings against state or society. Nowadays people who live in ‘democratized’ countries suffer from the sense of alienation and impotence. This kind of formalization of democracy might be attributed to a liberal understanding of democracy. Liberalism and Liberal democracy succeeded in protecting the individual's freedom against state or other people, while they hinder the realization of democracy in that their concept of liberty, the representative system and their sphere of democracy collide with ideal of democracy. When you understand democracy as a constitutional principle, you need to reflect on the political theories of democracy. Although Constitution opens up a wide possibilities of interpretation as to the concept and the content of democracy, the decisions of the Constitutional Court of Korea are to be evaluated as being made mainly on the basis of a liberal understanding of democracy. They have limited the possibilities of direct democracy, and they have been insufficient for the protection of labor rights which are valued as touchstone of industrial democracy. They also have reduced the feasibility of social rights, making them substantially empty. Supposing that liberal democracy has reached its limit, a search of ways to advance democracy is indispensable. For the sake of it, a rich diversity of political theories of democracy needs to be grafted onto the constitutional principles.