본 연구의 목적은 한국의 개혁적 시민운동은 정당에 대한 ‘비판’과 ‘지지’가 공존하는 ‘비판적 지지’관계를 형성함으로써 정당정치의 개혁과 정상화에 기여하였음을 보이고자 하는 것이다. ‘비판적 지지’는 조직적 독립을 유지하되 대부분의 쟁점사안들에 대해 협력관계를 유지하는 정당과 사회운동 간 협력의 한 유형이다. 개혁적 시민운동이 정당과 맺어왔던 협력관계에 대해서는 그동안 거의 연구가 이루어지지 않았던 것이사실이다. 그 이유는 개혁적 시민운동이 정당과 맺었던 협력방식이 공식적인 조직적 연계를 두지 않았을 뿐만 아니라 때때로 강력한 비판이 오고가는 독특한 형태를 띠고 있었기 때문이다. 개혁적 시민운동이 유지했던 이러한 ‘거리두기’는 시민운동이 대의정치를 부정하거나 정당정치 일반에 도전하는 것으로 비춰져 왔다. 그러나 개혁적 시민운동은 호남지역기반정당과 일면 거리두기를 하면서도 정책이나 쟁점사안들에 대해 동일한 관점을 공유하며 수시로 공동행동을 조직하는 등 협력관계를 지속해 왔다. 개혁적 시민운동이 정당으로부터 조직적 자율성을 획득함으로써 유지된 ‘거리’는 정당에 대한 자유로운 비판의 공론장으로 활용되었을 뿐이다. 2011년 가을, 서울시장 보궐선거에서 시민운동 활동가인 박원순 후보가 민주당과 선거연합을 결성하되 민주당에 입당하지 않고 무소속후보로 남았던 점 역시 양자 사이의 ‘비판적 지지’관계의 연장선상에서 보아야 할 것이다.

The purpose of this study is to show that reformative civic movements contributed to normalize and reform Korean party politics through forming the relationship of ‘critical support’ with political parties. ‘Critical Support’ is a model of cooperations between social movements and political parties. Organizational resources of social movements are independent from political parties, but social movements cooperate with political parties about most issues. The cooperation between political parties and reformative civic movements has not been fully studied yet. This is because the civic movements were independent from political parties and criticized them very strongly on occasion. Activists’ ‘distancing’ political parties has been considered as simply denying and challenging party politics by most scholars. However, reformative civic movements have tried to complement party politics by cooperating with Honam region-based parties, although they criticized them when there were some problems. In fact the autonomy which civic movements try to retain from Honam region-based parties brings about the ‘public sphere’ for critique. Park Won-Soon, a candidate of by-election of mayor of Seoul in the fall of 2011, formed the coalition for election with the Democratic party but didn’t join it. This shows that Activists of civic movements still kept their position as a ‘Critical Support’ of the parties.

The purpose of this study is to show that reformative civic movements contributed to normalize and reform Korean party politics through forming the relationship of ‘critical support’ with political parties. ‘Critical Support’ is a model of cooperations between social movements and political parties. Organizational resources of social movements are independent from political parties, but social movements cooperate with political parties about most issues. The cooperation between political parties and reformative civic movements has not been fully studied yet. This is because the civic movements were independent from political parties and criticized them very strongly on occasion. Activists’ ‘distancing’ political parties has been considered as simply denying and challenging party politics by most scholars. However, reformative civic movements have tried to complement party politics by cooperating with Honam region-based parties, although they criticized them when there were some problems. In fact the autonomy which civic movements try to retain from Honam region-based parties brings about the ‘public sphere’ for critique. Park Won-Soon, a candidate of by-election of mayor of Seoul in the fall of 2011, formed the coalition for election with the Democratic party but didn’t join it. This shows that Activists of civic movements still kept their position as a ‘Critical Support’ of the parties.

reformative civic movements, Honam region-based parties, critical support, public sphere