When 'the people' become the problem

Amid the yelling and screaming at the current round of National Assembly confirmation hearings, there is a quiet irony at the heart of democracy that is easy to miss.

The system is supposed to be government of the people, by the people and for the people. Yet one of the weaknesses of Korean democracy, from the outset and still evident today, is that its political leaders care too much about what “the people” think.

That sounds counterintuitive. What is our columnist smoking? How could caring about the people possibly be a weakness in a democracy?

But there is an important distinction between listening to citizens and constantly watching them.

The current confirmation hearings provide a good illustration.

Nominees for senior government positions are subjected to intense questioning about their records, families, associations, past remarks and alleged misconduct. That scrutiny is legitimate.

The public has a right to know whether people being considered for important public offices are honest, capable and qualified.

But increasingly, confirmation hearings can look less like examinations of whether someone is fit for a particular job and more like political theater performed before an audience.

The audience is us. We, the people.

Every question is potentially a headline. Every raised voice and wagging finger a bid to be the guy in the video clip. Every admission can be turned into ammunition for one political camp or the other.

The politicians know this. I am sure some of them stand back from the melee and wonder, “This is not good behavior.” Then they dive back in.

This dynamic is often apparent in business. In the years before the global financial crisis, people in finance continued making lucrative investments even as some recognized that they were causing the system to become dangerously exposed. And today, some tech people are warning about the consequences of moving too quickly with artificial intelligence while pressing ahead themselves. In both cases, a firm that stops to ask whether the game itself is working properly risks losing to those who keep playing.

In politics, as in markets, the politician who hesitates is a loser.

A representative democracy does not mean politicians should conduct a permanent opinion poll before making every difficult decision. Representatives are elected precisely because citizens cannot spend every hour studying every issue. They delegate responsibility.

A politician constantly asking, “What will people say?” can eventually become incapable of asking a more important question: “What is right?”

This is by no means uniquely Korean. Democracies everywhere struggle with populism, opinion polls, social media and the pressure to satisfy voters immediately. And, of course, underlying this is the politician’s imperative to be reelected. Korea’s democracy got rid of the dictator, put “the people” in his place and kept pretty much everything else

Look at the language lawmakers and executive branch leaders use. “The people” are constantly invoked. Both the ruling and opposition sides claim to speak for the people, and accuse the other side of betraying them. A political opponent's proposal is described not merely as mistaken but as something the people will reject.

But who exactly are “the people”? There is no such entity sitting on its throne telling politicians what to do. There are millions of voters in Korea, and each is unique.

Abraham Lincoln’s famous “government of the people, by the people, for the people” contains a deeper idea than simply giving people what they appear to collectively want at any particular moment.

It means every citizen has a stake and ultimately owns the political system. Politicians are, in a sense, management employed by the citizen-owners. They are entrusted with serious responsibilities that require judgment, courage and restraint.

This is where confirmation hearings matter.

The purpose should be to establish facts, test qualifications, expose conflicts of interest and allow lawmakers to determine whether a nominee is suitable for public office. Politicians should resist using them for their party’s or their own PR.

The current hearings illustrate the temptation. Tuesday’s hearing of Justice Minister nominee Kim Seung-won was marked by shouting and anger, with the major opposition People Power Party saying the ruling Democratic Party of Korea had violated Assembly rules by rejecting its request for 44 witnesses and four reference witnesses to appear.

These are serious matters. They deserve serious examination.

But democracy is weakened when the political calculation behind that examination becomes more important than the examination itself.

Perhaps Korea needs a little less concern with performing for “the people” and a little more confidence in the people's ability to judge.

Citizens do not need politicians constantly telling them what the public supposedly wants. They need politicians willing to explain what they believe, present the evidence, listen to opposing arguments and then take responsibility for their decisions.

That is the harder form of democracy, but it’s the one this country needs and its people deserve.

Michael Breen (mike.breen@insightcomms.com) is the author of "The New Koreans.” The views expressed here are his own.