독일 민주주의의 실험과 정착: 바이마르Weimar 공화국과 본Bonn 공화국의 의회민주주의

Abstract

While the parliamentary democracy introduced by the Weimar Republic has generally been perceived as the precursor of the totalitarian regime which replaced it, the one introduced by West Germany (Bonn Republic) has usually been evaluated as a consolidated democracy. However, unlike what occurred under the Weimar Republic, the West German parliamentary democracy, which focused more on these curing of political stability than on the principles of democracy, exhibited a tendency to limit the dynamic characteristics of parliamentary democracy. With this in mind, the claim that the West German parliamentary democracy was more successful than that of the Weimar Republic should be reassessed. All political systems naturally pursue the attainment of political stability. However, if a dictatorship can be regarded as a more stable political system than democracy, then any analysis based solely on the concept of political stability and continuity which evaluates the Weimar Republic as a failure and the West German regime as a success is one that overlook the detailed characteristics of the parliamentary democracies introduced by the two republics. The Weimar Republic allowed a variety of political factions to join the parliament, introduced elements related to direct democracy elements such as referendums and national initiatives to take root. Meanwhile, the West German experiment with democracy was one that was oriented towards the pursuit of stability during the post-war occupation. The 5% paragraph greatly complicated minority parties’ ability to enter the legislature of the Bonn Republic. Moreover, West German democracy was also characterized by such features as limits on the freedom of expression, on the grounds that this was needed to protect democracy; bans on the establishment if non-democratic political parties; and the exclusion of elements related to a direct democracy. However, in the end, the dynamic democracy of the Weimar Republic began to overlook the fact that respect for diversity was only possible under a democratic system and eventually came to regard democracy as a process that had lost its purpose. Meanwhile, West Germany was able to successfully consolidate its democratic system by accepting the fact that the values pursued by the political community should be placed ahead of democracy and that the achievement of these values was possible through the democratic process.