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A Study on the Problem of Political Power Structure under the Current Constitution

  • DONG-A LAW REVIEW
  • 2014, (62), pp.23-54
  • Publisher : The Institute for Legal Studies Dong-A University
  • Research Area : Social Science > Law

Shim, Kyung-Soo 1

1충남대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

A voice of concern and self-examination has been raised over the existing Constitution of 1987, the focal points of which consist of the revival of the direct election system for presidency, the single term system for presidency for five years, the abolition of presidential power to dissolve the General Assembly, the revival of the investigative power of the General Assembly, and the revival of local self-governments. For example, there have been very active political discussions to overcome the abusiveness of imperial presidentship and to put the current out-of-control governing system back in order. The growing interest in constitutional amendment among the members of the National Assembly from both the ruling and opposition parties has a lot to do with the current political atmosphere. Unfortunately, a change in political regime has not led to the reduction of the acute political power struggles between ruling and opposition parties. A serious concern over the methods as to how to overcome this kind of political problem has resulted in the recent discussion for reformation and revision of power structure through constitutional amendments. A group of moderate congressmen who are tired of zero-sum confrontational political situation controlled by a group of extreme hardline congressmen from the ruling and opposition parties have raised their voices for constitutional amendment which reflects the current needs for political reformation discussed above. It seems that the overall framework for constitutional amendment has been set up to some extent. For instance, a problem of imperial presidentship in which a president has to control and manage all of the governing aspects will be attempted to be solved structurally by taking an approach to reach the truth through fact-finding rather than following political ideologies. The most common fundamental problem in the presidentship in the U.S. is how to maintain the ‘check and balance’ of powers between the president and Congress. In other words, this is a matter of how not to become imperial or dictatorial for the U.S. presidents while maintaining powerful control over the government. Accordingly, one of the important points for discussion on the constitutional amendment in Korea is to pursue the improvement of political cultures at the same time. In order for the government to function rightfully, it is so much important to pursue the improvement of political cultures which make up the infrastructure of government. Especially, the chronic vice of the political cultures in Korea is based on the following traditions: authoritarian conducts based on Confucian tradition; the unstability of politics of political parties; negative views on compromise due to the black-and-white reasoning; the extreme confrontation based on regionalism; and unreasonable and stubborn demands based on illegal cause. In order to make constitutionalism function adequately, overcoming these kinds of problems is a fundamental challenge. Especially, the improvement on political party system and electoral system must be revised to do so. The precedent examples of the U.S. which is the only successful model seems to provide Korea with a lot of points to learn. With the prospects of achieving the unification of Korea and the national per capita income of $40,000, multi-layered and complex approaches are necessary.

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