한국 혁신주의 정당운동의 전개와 그 성격(Ⅱ) = Development and Characters of the Movement of Reformist Parties in Korea

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Recently the problem of forming either a progressive populace party or a national democratic party for the populace has actively been discussed in the camp of national democratic movement. This paper deals, paying attention to the tendency of movement of these new parties, with the history and ideology kept by the old refornist party. It also deals with the campaign of new reformist parties, which has mainly been conducted by the recent national democratic camp while the old reformist groups have been on the downgrade.
The division of Korea into north and south and the Korean War made the power of the reformist groups decreased greatly. Only the groups which were based on the ideology of democratic socialism initiated in the western Europe nearly remained in existence, while others were withered. These reformists organized newly the progressive party in the mid 1950's and showed greatly the power of their influence. Under the government of the democratic party immediately after the 4.19 Revolution they showed their vigor in the politics only for a short while. Generally speaking, the reformist parties are said to be a mere ornamentation to the political system of so-called conservative parties from the period of the Korean War till now.
Though there may be various reasons for such degeneration of the reformist parties from the period of Korean War till now, the most important reasons are that the government has continously kept the strong anti-communist policy and that Korean people have had the antagonistic feeling on the ideological problem. As a result, these made their roots not fastened deeply into the people, though the reformists clearly established their ideology different from the communism.
There appears presently the camp which holds the tradition of old reformist activities, but behaves differently from the old reformist groups. Moreover it is challenging the conservative power strongly. This situation arouses people's great interest. In the past many people took part in the democratic movement in the side of antigovernment groups. Some of them keep the more radical ideology about the problems relative to nation, democracy and populace than people engaged in the conservative opposition parties. They become the main members of leading power group, which is called national democratice camp (hereafter, NDC). This NDC comprises various social classes such as laborers, farmers, students, intelligentsia and men of religion. Laborers are the class which has promoted their status since the great labor struggle which was held from June to July in 1987. Farmers are people who were greatly damaged by the government policy that industry rather than agriculture should be stressed and that the products of farming and fishery should be imported. Students, intelligentsia and men of religion are people who have been standing in the forefront of the reform movement since the Kwangju Democratic movement of 1980. The ideology professed by the NDC has three characters the complete realization of democracy, the establishment of political behavior lead by the populace, and the independence through anti-Americanism and the strong will of unification of Korea.
anti-Americanism and the strong will of unification of Korea.
Till immediately before the presidential election of 1987, NDC had faithfully kept the relatively intimate relation with the conservative opposition parties in pursuit of realizing democracy which is the common goal of both sides. During the period of presidential election some of the NDC, however, recommended their independent candidate for the presidency, so that both sides began to show the gaps in their own opinions. Finally they started to establish independent political power each other. The recommendation of independent candidate in both sides stopped over because the desire for unitary candidate over whole anti-Government groups was overwhelming among people. This made both sides cooperate each other. NDC's effort to establish the independent political power, which was begun in this period, was made at accelerating pace. This continued and NDC organized two political parties in the general election of April 26, 1988, which are called 'Hangyore Democratic Party' and 'Minjung's Party' respectively. And members of two parties each took part in this election. After the election they made again an effort to form a larger integral party. And its concrete result is the new foundation of 'Minjung Party' on Nov. 10, 1990.
Ideologically 'Minjung Party' formed by the NDC is greatly different from the conservative opposition parties in that it shows its slogans: foreign policy of a nation should take a neutral attitude, and major industries should be nationalized, and the unification of the korean peninsula should be achieved by the confederation of the soutern part and the nortehrn part. The Party, different from the old reformist parties, does not try to connect the socialism directly and shows informally that its political line stands exactly in the intermediate position between the socialism and democratice socialsm.
At this point it is not possible to predict the future of so-called reformist party exactly. In Korea, the industrial society is now in progress to the hopefull direction; the political consciousness of the people is now being promoted; and the campaign of both laborers and farmers is now getting great influence. These are the factors which take a positive effect on the great growth of the reformist party. On the other hand, the antagonism between south and north Korea has been continued; the already established political power does not try to understand the reformist party; and each internal group of NDC has different point of view on the movement of reformist party. These might be the negative factors for predicting its future.
Presently, members of NDC are separated into various groups, but not in a unitary group. Some members of it belong to 'Minjung Party.' Some, who argued that it was premature to organize the independent political party of NDC and joined either 'Peace & Democracy Party' or 'Democratic Party' in the 1988 general election, are the present Members of Parliament. Some, who assert also that it is premature to organize the independent party, are members of 'Union of Organization of National Democratic Movement' and stay in the anti-government side as quasi-political power. Besides, various organizations for social reform movement such as Association of Labor Movement, Union of Farmers' Movement, and Teachers' Labor Union, which have a branch respectively across the nation, are the groups to keep the intimate relation to the NDC. Therefore, the integral party will really be born when the above-mentioned powers and groups of NDC gather under the unitary party. It is not until then that the political system, which is divided into two camps such as the Conservatist vs. the Reformist, will be formed earnestly. Also organizing such integrated political party will be successful if some conditions are met. They are something like this: democracy in Korea should be promoted to a higher levle; the Labor Union should be permitted either to act as political party or to support a particular party; present relations between south and north Korea should be changed; and people should have better understanding about the reformist powers.

목차 (Table of Contents)

• Ⅰ. 머리말
• Ⅱ. 민족민주운동세력의 신장
• Ⅲ. 민족민주운동세력의 정치세력화
• 1. 정치세력화의 초기과정
• (민중당 창당 이전까지)
• 2. 민중당의 창당
• Ⅳ. 혁신정당의 이념
• 1. 민중당의 정강정책 분석
• 2. 서구의 민주사회주의 이념과의 비교
• Ⅴ. 맺음말