A New Approach on 「Democratization of the Economy」 Policy in Korea

Various appraisals on conglomerates in Korea(namely "Chaebol") have been taken place for decades over and over and those were done by the name of "democratization of the economy" that were the main issues of the election campaigns last year. This article proposes the new legal approach in appraising that policy of the new government in two aspects:In the first place, the policy of the Park Government about democratization of the economy includes so many issues such as the protection of the economical weaks, the improvement of the enforcement systems of the fair trading acts, the eradication of the illegality of the chaebol, the reform of the corporate governance, and separation between banking and commerce etc. But the policy should be focused not on the structure of the corporation or the regulations of the corporate governance, but on the fair trade of the companies especially between big and small one to realize the purpose of the democratization of the economy and to prevent some kind of populism. In the second place, the Monopoly Regulation and Fair Trade Act has to be more refined as competition law to carry out the ideal of the economic efficiency and consumer welfare. And several criteria is needed to review the legality and reasonability of the articles on the restrictions on holding companies, prohibitions on cross-shareholding, ceiling on the total amount of shareholding, and limitations on the voting rights of financial or insurance companies in the Act. Those would be considering of the history of appearance of the chaebol, the research of the history and several amendments of those articles, the necessity and legitimacy of those articles in the light of history of the enactment, the changes of the amendments,consistency and equity of them, coincidence of the Constitution, and the global standards on them.