한국사회의 청렴성 제고를 위한 헌법적 고찰 - 공직사회의 부패방지 문제를 중심으로

A Constitutional Study on the promotion of probity of the Korean society

&nbsp;&nbsp;A state&quot;s probity is premised on strong morality. However, considering the side-effects which corruption causes, probity cannot be achieved through the mere ethical awareness of the public officials. In order to eradicate corruption, efficient and effective laws and institutions should be arranged. To resolve the corruption problem which impairs the state probity, public officials need to clearly recognize that corruption collapses the constitutional order of value which contains human basic rights, democracy, constitutionalism and social justice. Therefore, it is a national agenda to eradicate corruption and promote probity and thus creating a constitutional order of value.<BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;There has been various laws and institutions prevailing, but they had limitations in that they did not approach the corruption matter in this point of view. A state&quot;s probity has become a crucial factor in determining the status in the international society, and also a measure of the possibility of its development potentials. The Korean society also recognized this and enacted "the Corruption Prevention Act”, the general law for prevention of corruption. And further at July 2005, the former &quot;Board of corruption prevention&quot; made a new start as &quot;Committee of National probity&quot; with a strong will to stand the state inter-domestically on a moral basis, breaking from the passive prevention of corruption. However, its organization and authority is still weak to reach the goal of efficient and systematical prevention of corruption.<BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;To prevent corruption and promote probity, all the works related to corruption prevention should be integrated into one organization, and to reach the goal efficiently, other suggestions such as granting the organization substantial authority like investigation rights should be actively discussed. Of course, as mentioned before, these arrangements of legal institutions are basically needed in eradicating the social factors of corruption culture and this can be promoted through systematical anti-corruption education.<BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;In addition, the international？domestic restriction system should actually function and the arrangements of the overall system in which citizens take part can contribute to this. Also systematic self-censorship within public service should also be arranged, thus making the public officials be the ones responsible for the corruption prevention. The corruption problem is especially serious in Korean society because it is a kind of culture which is formed through long-term customs and unjust ideas. Therefore, eradicating the basic factors forming corruption culture is indeed the shortest way to prevent corruption and ultimately to promote the probity of a state.