Populism and democracy in South Korea: Two perspectives, one painting
William Barclay
In 2024, Yoon Suk Yeol, South Korea’s former president, accused the Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) of “collaborating with North Korean communists in order to destroy the South Korean state” and summarily imposed martial law on the people of South Korea during a nationally televised address.
Thankfully, despite its fiery onset, South Korea’s martial law crisis was quickly resolved and democracy was restored within the Korean nation.
Unfortunately, in the wake of its recent martial law crisis, Korean society has mimicked the mistakes of Western nations, such as the U.S., and has started to reflexively reject all populism and right-wing ideology as antidemocratic.
And yet, despite the fact that throughout the modern era, left-wing pundits and Western politicians have attempted to misconstrue all populism and right-wing ideology as antidemocratic, oppressive and fascist, it is clear that they are not at all inherently antagonistic to democracy.
Rather, if populist ideology and right-wing politics are earnestly compared and contrasted with democracy and its fundamental principles, then it immediately becomes readily apparent that populism and democracy are nigh indistinguishable, and that populism is at best merely the moniker that left-wing politicians and pundits have attempted to surreptitiously attach to any unwanted political outcomes and conservative results, in an effort to ignore the real needs of the state and the bedrock of any democracy: its people.
Firstly, populism and democracy both confirm that individual people are, unequivocally, the most important aspect of any state, and that within any nation, the populace must necessarily govern itself. Furthermore, populism and democracy both argue that pursuing the needs of its citizens is the fundamental purpose of every state and that any truly democratic, ethical state is merely an instrument for the will of its people. In fact, populism and democracy both agree that a state’s national interests are actually indistinguishable from the will and the needs of its people, and if a state does not pursue the needs and the will of its populace, then it has become corrupt and must be immediately reformed.
Moreover, populism and democracy both agree that the individual human rights of every person are of paramount important and utterly inviolable, and both are inherently predicated upon an ardent, unending crusade to preserve and protect the fundamental human rights, liberties and autonomy of every individual person against any transgression. Thus, even a state’s most urgent needs and political objectives cannot supersede or circumvent the rights and freedoms of its people.
In addition, populism and democracy both contend that a free-market economy is the ideal economic mode, as well as the only ethical economic system. In fact, populism and democracy both emphatically agree that any socialist state or communist economy is not merely grossly inefficient and utterly unproductive, but also quintessentially immoral and constantly in conflict with the fundamental human rights of its populace. In truth, populism and democracy both reject every aspect of a hierarchical, stratified society and constantly attempt to provide every citizen with an identical opportunity to not only merely participate in the political process, but earnestly self-determine economically as well as politically.
If the Korean people continue to mimic the mistakes of Western nations and reflexively reject all populism and right-wing ideology as antidemocratic, then South Korea will inevitably be forced to endure the same outpouring of democratic backsliding, political polarization and politically motivated violence that has inundated various democratic states, such as Canada and the U.S., as a result of their own open persecution of all populism and right-wing ideology over the course of the past decade.
William Barclay is an award-winning political theorist and policy expert. Follow him on Twitter/X @WillBarclayBBC. The views expressed in this article is the author's own.