민주주의 공고화를 위한 대규모기업집단정책 : 공정거래법상 경제력집중억제제도를 중심으로

Democratic consolidation as a subject related to the democracy after democratization is a difficult subject to define, and none of the scholars offer a fully satisfying definition. Some emphasize the negative aspects of consolidation and others offer to disaggregate and differentiate new democracies. But many of them concur with the point that durability of the new democracies will depend on their economic performance of the government, and that a huge gap between the rich and the poor can lead to the severe political unstability in the newly democratized regime. Poor economic performance and unbalance in the wealth in a society can be a primary reason for the revert to the authoritarian regime from the democratic government. This article concerns the gap between wealthy and poor, and warns that it can be threat to the stable democracy in Korea. The concentration of wealth in Korea have a long history. Economic concentration in Korea resulted from the government’s policy to promote economic growth and failure to balance between equity and efficiency. The Korean government ignored the redistribution of wealth to the working class and society on purpose. It concentrated insufficient resources to the strategic industries like heavy-chemical industries, and the result of that strategy was the concentration of economic resources to some big businesses and capitalists. Some policy measures to treat the economic concentration were taken, but they had no effect. First, because overall economic policy was oriented towards big business, the anti-economic concentration policy played only a limited role in treating the problem. Second, Korean government failed to balance between equity and efficiency, since its policy measures on big business were arbitrarily taken according to the business cycle and political demands. Third, the discrepancy between the aim of the regulation and the policy measures led to the deepening of economic concentration. This article tries to find the answer to these problems and suggests some policy measures by looking at the regulatory institutions designed to restrain economic concentration, i.e. Monopoly Regulation and Fair Trade Act. This article argues that the Korean government should reduce the gap between wealthy and the poor if it were to avoid political turmoil. To make Korean democracy stable and harmonious, first, Korean government should make the anti-concentration measures suitable for the aim of the regulation. Second, government should keep an eye on the market competition between businesses and have the right to demand the divestiture of the monopoly enterprises. Third, government must take policy measures based on the principle of equity consistently.