정당 민주주의 실현을 위한 지역정당 도입의 헌법적 과제

The purpose of this study is to critically examine the problems of the centralized party structure caused by the requirements for establishing a political party under the current Political Parties Act, and to seek the necessity of introducing local political parties and specific legal improvement measures for the realization of local autonomy and the freedom of establishing political parties guaranteed by the Constitution. The current Political Parties Act stipulates strict requirements for establishment, requiring a party to have its central office in the capital, secure five or more city/do parties, and have more than 1,000 members for each city/do party. Although these provisions have been upheld as constitutional by the Constitutional Court under the pretext of ensuring national scale and preventing the proliferation of minor parties, they have practically served as a structural barrier—legislating an oligopoly centered on the two major parties and blocking the entry of local political forces into the institutional sphere. Consequently, local politics has become subordinate to national politics as a lower unit, creating a structural contradiction where local councilors are more sensitive to the intentions of central party nominators than to those of local residents. Accordingly, this paper analyzes that the current system contains the following constitutional issues. First, it essentially infringes on the freedom of establishment of political parties under Article 8, Paragraph 1 of the Constitution, which includes the "right to organizational autonomy" of parties. Second, it is highly likely to violate the principle of equality and equal political opportunity by imposing structural disadvantages on new regional political forces. Third, the monopoly of nomination rights by the central party and the top-down decision-making structure undermine the principle of resident autonomy, which is the essence of local autonomy, and hinder the pluralism of representative democracy. In conclusion, this study proposes the following legal and policy improvement measures to realize genuine local decentralization and party democracy. First, the requirements for a "central office located in the capital" and "five city/do parties" under the Political Parties Act should be relaxed to recognize the legal status of local political parties that represent regional specificities. Second, in local elections within the regions where local political parties operate, the proportional representation system should be expanded and the deposit system should be improved to establish a foundation for the survival of minor parties. Third, the "local party chapters" system should be restored under the premise of a transparent accounting management system and linked with local political parties to secure a channel for resident-centered daily political participation. The results of this study will serve as a starting point for the "political separation of powers" that returns local politics, which has been co-opted by the center, to the residents, and are expected to be utilized as basic data for future discussions on the revision of the Political Parties Act and legislation related to local autonomy.