대통령의 헌법상 권한은 과연 강력한가?

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

There still exists a common fear of the “imperial presidency” among Koreans. Is Korean presidency really so powerful that it calls for a constitutional revision to change government structure, from presidential to parliamentary or semi-presidential system? To answer the question, I examine some quantitative researches that assess the power of the presidency. Here, to assess the Korean presidency, I adopt Shugart and Carey’s measuring method, Hellman and Frye’s checklist method, Metcalf’s and Roper’s revisions to Shugart and Carey’s method, and Siaroff’s checklist method. According to Hellman and Frye’s method and Metcalf’s method, the Korean presidency seems to be quite strong, but compared only to the semi-presidential systems. I cannot find any significant evidence for the “imperial presidency” of the current constitution. And the constitutional power of the prime minister is not so weak as people think. The strong presidency and the weak premiership is mainly due to the fact that the president has exclusive power over cabinet dismissal. My conclusion is that the Korean presidency is “imperial” in relation to the cabinet, and that the Korean premiership is “nominal” in relation to the president and his/her cabinet.

참고문헌 (Reference)

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