Abstract:

South Korea has one of the oldest non-amended constitutions in the world. However, while the comparative literature has been neglecting this puzzling case as such, Korean literature on the matter has been lacking theoretically informed investigation. Therefore, this article studies the mechanisms and dynamics responsible for this outstanding endurance from the perspective of comparative constitutional amendment theory. Developing an analytical framework that integrates insights from quantitative and qualitative approaches, the article examines the last constitutional reform in 1987, and against the background of reform attempts since then, the constitutional amendment attempt in 2018. The analysis reveals how the core variables inclusiveness, specificity, and flexibility interplay with the contextual variables environment, formal institutions, and culture, particular to the case of South Korea. The study finds that a combination of highly exclusive political power structures with typically elite-driven political decisionmaking practices, in a political environment characterized by strong antagonism prompting an extreme conflictual constitutional ethos, are crucial to understanding the constitutional petrification.

摘要：

韩国拥有世界上最古老的未经修改的宪法之一。但是，尽管比较文献一直忽略了这个令人费解的案例，但韩国有关此事的文献一直缺乏理论上的知情调查。因此，本文从比较宪法修正理论的角度研究了造成这种持久耐力的机制和动力学。本文建立了一个分析框架，整合了定量和定性方法的见解，考察了1987年的最新宪法改革，并在此后的改革尝试背景下，于2018年尝试了宪法修改尝试。该分析揭示了核心变量包容性，特殊性，以及与上下文变量环境，正式机构，和文化，尤其是韩国。研究发现，在以强烈对抗为特征的极端冲突的政治风气的政治环境中，高度排他性的政治权力结构与通常由精英驱动的政治决策做法的结合对于理解宪法石化至关重要。