다문화사회와 민주주의의 실현방안 - 외국인의 정치적 권리의 확대를 중심으로 -

Today, Korean society is entering into a multicultural society in earnest. As the Korean society changed into a multicultural society, the problem of eliminating unfair discrimination against foreigners and embracing them as members of the community became a major issue. Recently, the issue of guaranteeing the political rights of foreigners is becoming important. In the process of realizing democracy in a multicultural society, not considering the opinions of foreign residents can eventually threaten democracy. However, considering the normative meaning of national sovereignty in the Constitution of the Republic of Korea, and the interrelationship between democracy and national sovereignty, there is a restriction that foreigners’ right to vote should be guaranteed within the limits of national sovereignty. It is difficult to recognize the subjectivity of foreigners’ sovereignty under the Constitution. However, the Constitutional Court and academia say that in principle, the subjectivity of foreigners can be acknowledged. However, since the suffrage corresponds to the rights of the people, foreigners can not be the subject of the right of suffrage as a basic right under the Constitution. In other words, according to the principle of national sovereignty, the right to vote and the right of election of foreigners are not recognized in national and local elections (presidential elections and parliamentary elections). However, the fact that foreigners are not entitled to the right of suffrage as a constitutional right does not mean that the right to suffrage as a legal right can not be recognized by foreigners. The current public election law also recognizes the right to vote in foreign elections in local elections as a legal right. However, the current Public Official Election Law recognizes the right of election of foreigners under extremely strict requirements. Therefore, it is necessary to alleviate the requirement to recognize the right to vote in local elections to foreigners who have acquired the status of permanent residence in the Access Control Act. And it is necessary to expand the political rights of foreigners. For example, the Korean government can grant foreign nationals who have the right to vote in local elections to be eligible for election in local council elections, and to guarantee the freedom of establishment of foreign parties and the freedom of activity. And the government can also guarantee freedom of election campaign and freedom of political expression of foreigners. Through this, I think Korean society will be able to realize a higher level of democracy.