헌법국가에 착근된 민주주의 - 독일 기본법의 형성과 체계를 중심으로 -

초록

This study investigates the historical formation and institutional structure of the Basic Law of Federal Republic of Germany with focus on the way of embedding party democracy in the principle of constitutional state as an attempt of Germans to overcome the limitations of minimalist notion of democracy based on political competition and majority rule, which were considered to be responsible for the breakdown of Weimar democracy and the rise of National Socialist dictatorship. This paper highlights three crucial institutional pillars of German constitutional democracy: firstly, the central position of political parties and the parliament as the core institutions of democracy; secondly, the inviolability of human dignity as the highest legal norm and the idea of ‘democracy capable of defending itself’; and, thirdly, a multi-layered power structure that promotes horizontal and vertical separation of powers and the consolidation of consensus democracy or negotiation democracy.

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