Today the majority of South Koreans will go to the polls to elect their next president. However, as in all modern democracies, not all of the eligible voters will cast a ballot today.
In South Korea the voter participation rate has been on a steady downward track since the founding of the Sixth Republic in 1987. This downward track has occurred in both presidential and parliamentary elections resulting in an over 20 percent drop in voter participation.
In the last presidential election a little over 60 percent of the eligible voters cast a ballot and in the most recent parliamentary elections in April of this year only 56 percent of eligible voters cast a ballot. So what accounts for the 40 percent of eligible voters who fail to participate in a democratic process that was so recently gained?
Some posit that voting is a lot like buying a lottery ticket, which is a demonstrably irrational purchase. Like buying a winning lottery ticket the odds of a single vote making a difference in a nationwide election are virtually zero. Statisticians calculate the average odds of a single vote in the U.S. affecting the U.S. presidential election as one in 60 million although variations due to the U.S. electoral college system mean that swing state voters are far more likely to affect the election while those living in deeply partisan states have virtually no say.
However these variations do not apply in South Korea as the presidential election is a direct first past the pole election in which each vote contributes equally towards deciding the winner. In such a case the odds of one vote affecting the election may be calculated as approximately one in 20 million, depending on the number of actual voters today. Nevertheless, the average South Korean is far more likely to be killed in a car accident today than to cast the deciding vote in the presidential election. So non-voters seem almost rational in their approach.
But a simple statistical analysis should not be the only way South Koreans should think about voting. In South Korea the percentage of eligible voters who vote varies dramatically among age groups.
South Koreans in their 60s are almost twice as likely to vote as those in their 20s. While in democracies generally voting percentages rise as people age, in South Korea the marked difference is attributable to the experience of older South Koreans who lived under a dictatorship during their formative years.
This experience combined with memories of the democratic upheavals of the 1980s has given the older population in South Korea a personal connection to democracy and a deep desire to exercise their right to vote. This personal connection often is lacking for many of my fellow American citizens and for many South Koreans in their 20s.
Thus in the U.S. appeals to non-voters often invoke ephemeral ideas of community involvement and the legitimization of the democratic process. In South Korea such appeals often include harsh imagery of the North Korean dictatorship and the unforgiving conditions for the average North Korean citizen.
However, such idealistic concepts or bleak images are unnecessary when almost every South Korean over the age of 40 clearly remembers the South Korean dictatorships of the past. Younger South Koreans need merely talk to their parents or grandparents to understand why they should vote today.
South Korean culture emphasizes that the young must be grateful to their elders for the sacrifices the elders have made to create the world in which they live. And while such reasoning is often used illegitimately by elder South Koreans to excuse anti-social conduct in everyday life, in the case of voting the rationale is perfectly accurate.
While U.S. citizens who do not vote can easily avoid facing those who have sacrificed for our democracy, South Koreans do not have that luxury. Any non-voting South Korean merely has to look into the eyes of the elders around them and realize that not voting delegitimizes their suffering and sacrifice.
In the end, by ignoring the sacrifices of distant and forgotten ancestors and disregarding the responsibilities of simply living in a democracy, a non-voter in the recent U.S. presidential election may be able to justify their non-participation by citing statistical analyses. A voter in a deeply partisan state, such as California or Kansas, can legitimately argue that their vote has a statistically zero chance of affecting the election.
However, such an excuse is not available to South Koreans. Today each vote in South Korea has an equal impact on the outcome of the election and, more importantly, every voter who does not remember the very recent democratic struggles can look into the eyes of their elders for guidance. Every South Korean owes it to themselves, their parents and their grandparents to vote today.
By Daniel Fiedler
Daniel Fiedler is a professor of law at Wonkwang University in South Korea and a licensed attorney in California and Arizona. ― Ed.
