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The Estimation of the Economic Order in the ROK Constitution and the Second Amendment of the Constitution, and Its Direction

  • The Review of Korean History
  • 2008, (89), pp.159-214
  • Publisher : The Historical Society Of Korea
  • Research Area : Humanities > History

Yong-Oak Shin 1

1고려대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

The amendment of economic articles of the ROK Constitution was proposed in January 1954. After that time, it was withdrawn in March and passed in November. The economic articles revised by the second amendment of the ROK Constitution were 4 articles among 6. Only judging from these articles, it was obvious that the revised economic articles meant the conversion from a controlled economy into a free economic system. But the United States and some media had doubts about the will of Syngman Rhee government which had proposed the amendment bill, and pressured the government to put it into practice. At that time, contrary to the time when the Constitution had been established, the United States thought that the character of the economic order of the Constitution was not socialistic. Thus the United States judged that the important matter was not the amendment of economic provisions, but Syngman Rhee government's willingness to implement the intent of the amendment. The amendment of economic articles of the Constitution was carried out in the situation where the class conflict of the liberation era was defused in a hostile manner through the Korean War, and the postwar society was reorganized by anti-communism. Therefore the ideological spectrum was extremely limited, compared with that of the time when the Constitution which had reflected the class conflict of the liberation era had been established. And more strengthened anti-communism was the guiding principle that defined the substance of the economic order of the divided anti-communist state. The advocates for the amendment of constitution like Syngman Rhee government, Liberal Party, and political-social powers argued that the economic order of the Constitution should be restored to a free economic system, because it was socialistic. Owing to the destruction of war and more strengthened anti-communism, the cause to increase production overwhelmed the cause to build a society of equality. The people who objected to the amendment of constitution thought of the economic order of the Constitution as the revised capitalism to seek the idea of the principal of equality, and emphasized its progressive character in history. But the politicians emphasized that a goal of the revised capitalism was anti-communism, and one of them insisted that the economic order of the Constitution was to reject a monopoly and protect a free economic system. The politicians who objected to the amendment of the constitution agreed on the purpose of the amendment that the controlled economy had to be replaced with the free economic system to increase production. But they objected to the amendment of the constitution, because they thought that the government intended to blame the constitution for the failure of economic policy. Also the opinion of most people like Yu Jin-Oh who considered the economic order of the Constitution as the revised capitalism was similar to that of them. In spite of different evaluations to the economic order of the Constitution and two conflicting opinions about the constitutional amendment, the fixed direction of the economic order after Korea War was limited to that of a free economic system. Unlike with these opinion, there was another point of view. From the viewpoint of state capitalism, a revised capitalism was supported as the heritage of world history, and an underdeveloped economy needed statism and a strong economic plan. But this state capitalism had two moments. One was for sublating state (monopolistic) capitalism and transferring to a new phase of social evolution. Another was for functioning as a mere development strategy of state-led capitalism in the underdeveloped country.

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