새로운 커뮤니케이션 환경하에서의 선거운동 규제의 적절성 검토 - 『공직선거법』 제59조를 중심으로 -

Abstract

Under the present political system of representative democracy, the election system has the constitutional importance in terms of exercise of sovereignty. In these days, election means more than voting process, because diverse interests are expressed through the election and social integration can be achieved by the discussion and majority rule of the elected representatives. So ‘election’ is a very comprehensive term including registration of voters and candidates, electoral campaign, voting, ballot counting, and declaration the results of the poll and a complex political process performed by political parties, candidates, voters, mass media, NGO’s and National Election Committee et al. In particular, electoral campaign is basically a competitive and persuading process of communication between candidates and voters. So the change of communication environment is closely relevant to the change of electoral campaign. Above all, present change of communication environment symbolized by ‘Web 2.0’ has requested the brand-new regulation system different from that under the traditional paper or broadcasting media, because it has much different features from the old media in its structure and operation. That is these changes in communication environment will have effects on the electoral system which can be called “political public sphere”, so the regulation system for electoral system made under the traditional media environment need to be revised to correspond with these changes. In fact, after the Korean Constitutional Court had made a significant decision for on-line electoral campaign in 2011, 『the Public Official Election Act』 was revised in 2012 for admitting the extension of on-line electoral campaign. But it is not easy to say that revision is enough for the change of communication environment. The purpose of this study is to examine the appropriateness of the regulation for the on-line electoral campaign, focused on the article 59 of 『the Public Official Election Act』 which is most close relevance to the Korean Constitutional Court’s decision in 2011. In conclusion, that clause cannot fully correspond to the present communicational changes, and cannot even meet the criteria of the Korean Constitutional Court’s decision for the on-line electoral campaign. So it is necessary the complete permission for the on-line electoral campaign for the corresponding with the present change of communication environment