미국의 정치양극화와 대의민주주의 실패의 한국 정치에의 함의: 정치양극화의 헌법사회학 분석

There is an important evidence which the gap of ideological conflicts (polarization) between the ruling party and a leading opposition party has intensified since the 2000s. There is no theoretical study on whether polarization of politics is caused by the polarization of political group or whether it affects the polarization of voters. Moreover, when politicians and voters regard the polarization debate such as ideological conflict as 'unfavorable or favorable' of their political interests, they may ignore the essential problem of political polarization. I examine the constitutional improvement of parliament, political parties and elections in order to develope a representative democracy, which is an essential issue of political polarization. In the 1990s, the US House of Representatives reformed the Congress through a keen debate on the political polarization, but the ideological indicators of voters have changed from the Republican conservatism, the Democratic Liberalism and the Tea Party’s Centrism, which advocates the establishment of the Third Party. This paper is concerned about the causal relationship between the polarization of political parties and the polarization of voters through the origins and evolution of political polarization in the United States. First, I examined the definition and types of political polarization, and the polarization of political parties and parliament in detail. Second, I examined the dysfunctions of democracy and electoral system due to the polarization of parliament and political parties in United States(Ⅲ). Finally, I examined the differences in political polarization between the United States and Korea, and analysed the constitutional reformations to the parliamentary, party, and electoral systems needed to resolve political polarization in Korea.