Democratization and Local Community

abstractThis research is to examine the political environments of local community that has been changed in the process of the democratization and the institutionalization of the new local governance system, and to explore the task for the further democratization of Korea. The local autonomy system that has reconstituted since 1991 is an obvious evidence of democratic development in Korea. But the Korean local autonomy system still has several problems and restrictions so that it cannot fulfill its function effectively as the central mechanism for the democratic local politics and the grass-roots democracy.It is the accumulated customary practices under the past non-democratic central system that prevent the democratic local autonomy from further development, that is, the vortex to the center, the excessive disparity and inequality between regions, regional mobilization to the central politics, and local autonomy system only toward the administration. These local political environments that have been ruled by central government are curbing the resources and dynamics of local autonomy.Therefore, we should make an effort to reform disproportionally centralized structure in order to develop the local autonomy and vitalize the local society as self-sufficient local community. That is one of the most important tasks for us to tackle for the Korean democratization. Of course, the local autonomy used to be called as the democratic system from the below in the light of that local grass-roots democracy can produce the democratization of overall state politics. However, when we consider the reality and resources of Korean local society and politics, the development of local community and local autonomy can't but rely on the central politics

Regional Cleavage and Electoral System: New Direction of Institutional Reforms

이 논문은 지역균열의 정치로 대표되는 한국 선거정치의 민주적 국민통합 기능을 개선하기 위한 제도적 개혁 방향에 대한 연구이다. 우리의 지역균열의 정치는 민주적 국민통합과 조화를 이루지 못하고 있다. 지역별 1당 독점체제는 경쟁적 정당정치를 크게 제약하고 있으며, 승자독식의 정부권력 구조를 배경으로 흑백대결의 정치구조를 만들고 있다. 선거정치가 민주적 통합에 기여하기 위해서는 지역별, 전국적으로 승자독식 체제를 개선해야 한다. 한국정치의 승자독식 구조의 핵심 제도는 대통령제이다. 소선거구제 중심의 국회의원 선거제도는 승자독식의 대통령제의 폐해를 증폭시키고 있다. 이 연구에서는 현행 선거제도의 대안으로 제시돼 온 권역별 비례대표제와 중대선거구제의 특성과 한계에 대해 재검토한다. 그리고 한국 선거에서 일반적으로 채택되고 있는 기호순번제의 폐지를 가장 우선적인 제도개혁 과제로 제기한다. 이는 제도의 변경이 아니라 불평등한 제도의 시정이다. 더불어 현행 선거제도를 토대로 16개 시·도별 석패율제를 도입하는 것도 유용한 추가적 대안의 하나로 제시했다. This article is a study on the electoral system reform, which intends to improve the function of Korean electoral politics. The korean politics of regional cleavage is out of harmony with democratic integration. Regional monopoly system of political parties disturbs democratic party politics, and makes Korean politics a game of all or nothing with winner-takes-all power structure. It needs to reform the winner-lakes-all system in local and national level. Korean presidential system is the key task to reform the winner-takes-all system. But this study focuses on parliamentary election and party system. It reexamines the existing alternative ideas of electoral institution critically. parallel system like Japan's or Germany's. And It supposes the abolition of numerical order system that assign priority to the major parties, as a new direction of electral system reform. And, if in need, next-in-line system may be adopted. It is the system that parties are allowed to present lists that give equal rankings to some or all of those candidates who are nominated both on a party list and for an SMD (Single-Member District), the final ranking of the SMD losers on the PR (Proportional Representation) list is determined by how well each polled in comparison to the winner in that district