급진민주주의 이론의 헌법해석적 포섭 가능성

There is an opinion that the constitution’s economic democratization provision can be the basis of policies to control the market power and supplement the market failures. On the other hand, there is the claim that the economic logic has no room for democratic principles and the market should be left free. The mainstream of the constitutional academics and the Constitutional Court regard the Korean economic system as a free market economy mixed by social market one. This interpretation is mainly based on the mutual relation between Article 119(1) and (2) of the Korean Constitution. However, it is only at the level of literary one. Particularly, it remains within the structure that replaces the individual and specific life of constitutional subjects to the economic logic. Overcoming this limit of this mainstream interpretation, we need to form a new method of constitutional interpretation that is structured in the framework of ‘redefining the constitutional human beings → establishing the people-oriented constitutional view → making the base for criticizing the depersonalization of market theory → enhancing the importance of economic democratization → realizing the principle of democracy in the economic realm.’ In order to design this framework theoretically, we need to discuss expansively about the nature and content of democracy. In this regard, I think that radical democracy theory can contribute to the methodology of a new economic constitutional interpretation. This paper reviews Chantal Mouffe’s theory of radical democracy and examines whether it can be appropriately applied in the Korean Constitution interpretation, especially its economic clauses. If it is possible, I think that the logical limit in the present constitutional interpretation can be overcome.