[Park Sang-seek] Korean democracy on trial

Many observers attribute the cause of the present political crisis in Korea to the clash between conservative and liberal forces. But the real cause of the crisis lies in the misuse and abuse of political authority, not to ideological conflict between the left and right.

Therefore, the solution to the crisis should be looked for in the root cause of the former, not the latter, and this can be found not in a single individual, but in the entire political culture of Korea. The public authorities of a mature democratic system can hardly be abused by a single person or a group of persons. This is not only because the democratic system has all kinds of institutional mechanisms for the prevention of abuse of power, but also because it is founded on a deep-rooted democratic political culture.

The most important characteristic of democratic political culture is the principle that all state authority shall derive from the people in name and reality. But in Korea, authoritarian political culture is so deeply rooted in the people’s psyche that any government, regardless of its governance structure, is vulnerable to the misuse or abuse of public authority by the head of state, the governing party leaders and high-level government officials.

The Korean people had lived under the monarchical, colonial and military political systems throughout their long history until they finally succeeded in establishing a truly democratic government in 1993. As a result, Korean political culture is characterized by a highly authoritarian political leadership, an imperious bureaucratic system, a widespread system of sharing the spoils of victory, and factionalism in political parties and public and private organizations.

To make it worse, a collectivist way of life prevails in Korean society and people are more united in primordial groups. As a result, the political party system, as well as interest groups and NGOs, are not well developed. At the same time, business organizations are engaged in cut-throat competition with each other for favorable treatment from the government because Korea has a state-led economic system.

Political parties perform the key function in the democratic process, but Korean political parties are incapable of articulating various interest groups and promoting the most appropriate policies for various national issues to be adopted by the government. They mainly engage in factional struggles for winning elections and taking power, while most politicians seek insatiable power and personal gains rather than serving the general public. Therefore, it is not surprising that the general public distrusts and despises political parties and politicians.   

Another aspect of Korean political culture is that the Korean people have an unquenchable desire for equality, a strong sense of justice and a materialistic mindset. Authoritarian culture is more prevalent in privileged people (the upper class), while the desire for equality, justice and materialism (mammonism) is stronger in the masses. Throughout history, the Korean masses have rarely enjoyed these three values.

They have always been the underdogs. This is the reason why they had leaned toward socialism and communism during Japanese rule and until the Korean War broke out. The Korean War became a watershed for the ideological shift from socialism and communism to Western democracy and capitalism for the South Korean people, regardless of their class differences because they believed that democracy and capitalism could guarantee the above three values. For the ordinary Koreans, equality includes economic equality as well as political and social equality, while justice means a fair share of all values and services and fair treatment of all citizens.

However, whether conservative or liberal, they do not realize that democracy and capitalism are not harmonious with each other because democracy can guarantee political freedom and equality, but not economic equality, whereas capitalism can guarantee economic freedom, but not economic equality and political freedom. Since authoritarianism has penetrated into every Korean’s psyche, those who are in the higher positions in the three branches of the government are almost instinctively prone to use their positions to privatize public authority for personal gain.

The spoils system is widely used for such purposes practically at all levels of government. The above shows that authoritarian political culture and Koreans’ excessive desire for equality, justice and materialism rather than the government institutions are the real causes of the current political turmoil. Ordinary people feel angry because the privileged enjoy all three cherished values while they do not.

Therefore, whichever party comes into power, a similar privatization of government authority and the abuse of power can happen. The ideological polarization of Korean politics is also rooted in the Korean political culture. All Koreans, conservative and liberal, agree that they cannot accept communism, but they disagree on justice and equality.

But when the conservatives are pushed into the corner in a political contest by the liberals, they accuse the liberals of being pro-communists, while the liberals accuse the conservatives of destroying democratic ideals when they are cornered. The more serious and brutal the fight between the two groups becomes, the more seriously democracy is damaged and the more schadenfreude there is for the North Korean regime. 

By Park Sang-seek

Park Sang-seek is a former rector of the Graduate Institute of Peace Studies at Kyung Hee University and the author of “Globalized Korea and Localized World.” He can be reached at parksangseek@hotmail.com. –Ed.