존 스튜어트 밀의 정치경제학과 헌법상 경제민주주의론 서설

초록

I think we need to consider theoretical meaning of economic democracy as a supporting evidence and limitation of government interference to market. In this paper, I try to compare today’s theoretical effort to John Stuart Mill’s political and economic thoughts. Mill lived in times of enthusiastic industrialization and democratization and he succeeded building theoretical system in both politics and economy. Basically Mill was a liberal and he remained the same in the field of economy. He supported laissez-faire and embraced the idea of property and competition. Mill believed that individuals have a right to property since they provided labor and property helps protect individuals’ freedom and self-motivation. However Mill denied property that was unrelated to labor or didn’t promote freedom. He also opposed to monopolistic or oligopolistic market. In other words, he modified classic liberalism and its premise was production/distribution distinction. Mill said production relied on the nature’s rule but distribution was carried out by man-made system, which was shaped by the society’s law and custom. This provides theoretical foundation for political economy as social liberalism instead of simple libertarianism. Mill said property obtained without labor could be socially controlled. He also thought that the majority of workers of his time didn’t receive enough of what the principle of property said they deserved, thus proposed to overcome the reality by forming a labor union and a cooperative or by examining moderate socialism. Considering the link between government and market, Mill worked not only on the principle of each existence, but also on the principle of the relation between the two. This methodology leads us to think again about today’s social science methodology that sets a limit to its own territory. In the past, constitutional law concerned only about a nation and its government. However, future constitutional law should reach out to a nation’s economy and the market in order to be more effective in running a nation. And I believe this applied to methodology as well. Furthermore, Mill laid the foundation for applying democracy in economic field. He saw the possibility of utilizing political and democratic theories in making social systems by considering property as individuals’ right and actual social system. Property is a fruit of labor. However, today’s financial capitalism allows a few individuals with financial assets to rapidly increase their fortune without labor. As a result, only a few people own disproportionate amount of the society’s wealth and this should change by the government interference. I believe it is possible to make a principle of economic democracy based on individuals’ labor and freedom under the assumption of limited role of government. As Mill presented, we should consider politics and economy together and try to build theories that connect the two. Provisions on economic democracy in our constitution should be further interpreted based on this understanding.

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