통합진보당 정당해산심판 사건에 대한 비판적 분석

Abstract

The Korean government filed a request to dissolve the Unified Progressive Party(UPP) in 2013, and the adjudication of this case has been proceeding in the Constitutional Court. The dissolution of a political party is covered under Article 8 (4) of the Constitution; “If the purposes or activities of a political party are contrary to the democratic basic order, the Government may bring an action against it in the Constitutional Court for its dissolution, and the political party shall be dissolved in accordance with the decision of the Constitutional Court.” This is an article that expresses the so-called protective democracy or militant democracy. The dissolution of a political party means not only that it is a protective system against the enemy of democracy, but also that it is a system that guarantees the existence of political parties. On the other hand, this system of dissolving a political party contains a considerable amount of danger. It is true that democracy is secured by dissolving a party that is dangerous to democracy, yet it is also true that this system of dissolving a party that represents the minorities due to violating the democratic basic order can be a logic that a political majority uses to suppress minorities, which paradoxically is a violation of democracy. Even if democracy is only possible when its basis recognizes that everyone is different, has different opinions, and can have differences, it can function as logic to exclude people or organizations with different attitudes and thoughts according to the standards of ‘the current majority.’ If the dissolution of a political party is determined under such exclusive values, the system of dissolving a political party is not protection of a party but an exclusive logic that keeps different people or organizations from the community of the majority and that represses the democracy itself which is based on diversity and tolerance. When the constitution disguises itself as a self-contained value system and continuously tyrannizes the value, there is no room for political value relativism in any place in the community.