미국형 대통령제의 역사적 기원 : 기본구조 - 필라델피아 제헌회의에서의 핵심 쟁점을 중심으로

초록

The presidential system, as one of the most important inventions and exports of the U.S., had an undeniably strong impact on the fundamental structure of our government. In this Article, I traced the origins of the U.S. presidential system back to the debates in the Federal Convention of 1787, and found some significant features. First, the delegates to the Convention were more concerned with the republican principle of “responsibility” than with that of “checks and balances” in designing the basic form of the executive branch. Therefore, they finally agreed on “a single magistrate with no executive council.” The secrecy, the dispatch, the vigor and energy of the executive were also highly appreciated, and that meant, the Constitution’s strong one-person executive was a reflection of the delegates’ military experiences during the revolutionary war. Second, the delegates not only objected to the direct popular election of the president, but also rejected the indirect congressional election of the executive. Their ultimate preference lied in the indirect election by the electoral college, where the national executive could maintain sufficient independence from the federal congress which emerged as the advocate of State interests after the Great Compromise. The opposition of small States could be weakened by giving each State equal vote in the congressional runoff election of the president. Third, the delegates strengthened the presidential independence from the congress not only by the mechanism for its appointment but also by that for its removal: they provided a legal impeachment process on the grounds of “treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors,” instead of a con- gressional vote of no-confidence as political control. The invention of the vice presidency seems to have been an afterthought of the Convention, a mere residue of its solution to the problem of presidential selection, i.e., the indirect election by the electoral college. Unlike the makers of the U.S. Constitution, the Korean delegates to the Constitutional Assembly agreed on “a congressionally controlled presidency with a council of state.” In conclusion, I analysed the historical backgrounds and political motivations of the two constitution-making processes, and revealed some key factors explaining the differences between the two cases.

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