[Citizen College Season 7] #7 Political and Civil Liberty

On June 7, 2023, the Seongbuk Adult Education School, PDI, and the Department of Political Science and International Relations at Korea University held the seventh lecture of the Citizen College Season 7  “Politics in Everyday Life” in Asiatic Research Institute, Korea University. In this lecture Dr. Oh Hyang Mi, Senior Researcher at PDI, talked about “Political and Civil Liberty”.

Titled “Political and Civil Liberty”, the lecture covered the definition and classification of civil and political freedoms in modern countries, history and examples, and related debates. Civil freedom, such as physical freedom and property rights, is also called passive freedom because it is a freedom guaranteed before basic rights are violated. On the other hand, political freedom such as the right to vote and the right to vote is also called active freedom because it is a freedom guaranteed only when public sovereignty is recognized as public freedom. The guarantee of basic rights necessary to guarantee civil liberties is achieved by the establishment of the rule of law, and the national sovereignty necessary to guarantee political freedom is achieved through the establishment of democratic government.

There is also a difference between Western modern countries where the rule of law and democracy have developed. The United Kingdom is called the origin of almost everything in the political system. The guarantee of fundamental rights, the rule of law, parliamentary sovereignty, constitutional monarchy, representation, political parties, parliamentary democracy, and cabinet system were developed in England. On the other hand, the United States, France, and Germany copied Britain, an advanced country in the political system, and developed a written constitution, a presidential system, a right to review unconstitutional laws, national sovereignty, an administrative trial, a rule of law, and a constitutional court. In Britain, due to the struggle of privileged status, judicial power became independent from royal power, and accordingly, due to the need for proper legislation, legislative power became independent. Civil and political freedoms were guaranteed in each process. In Prussia (Germany), on the other hand, civil liberties were given from above in the form of sovereignty representing the authority of public power and law, and legal guarantees of individual rights. The debate over the relationship between political freedom and civil liberties developed into a debate about whether each freedom had conceptual concurrency, logical connection, and historical concurrency.

In the lecture, we talked about political freedom for civil liberties. The establishment of state power to carry out the rule of law during the period of state formation became the foundation of political freedom and civil freedom. The terms of the rule of law are authoritative executive power (administrative power, judicial power) and legislative power to enact legitimate laws. The democratic legitimacy of legislative power (ordinary right to vote) does not mean the guarantee of civil liberties. The guarantee of civil liberties will enable the promotion of political freedom.