By Choi Sung-jin
Korea’s falling birthrate and rapidly aging population have caused changes not only to society and the economy but also to politics.
According to the National Election Commission, the share of voters in their 20s, which was 19.4 percent of the total population as recently as 2007, has fallen to 16 percent in this year’s parliamentary polls. On the other hand, the portion of voters 60 or older has jumped from 18.1 percent to 23.4 percent.
Until the general elections in 2008, the share of 20-something voters was 1 percentage point larger than that of aged voters but in local elections two years later, their portions reversed.
The dwindling share of young voters has led to a steep fall in the number of policies and campaign promises for them. “As the median age of the Korean society reached 40.8 years last year, the policy priority has changed,” said Kim Moon-gil, a fellow at the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs. “Young voters are going out of the limelight.”
Political indifference to youth has already become reality. As of the end of last year, only three laws were enacted in relation to youth, compared with 23 for children and 13 for elderly people. In the ongoing campaigns for the 20th National Assembly, rival political parties are competing to offer youth-related pledges but have failed to draw attention from young voters, except for the recent promise to raise the minimum wage.
The ruling Saenuri Party has promised to offer scholarships to entrants to vocational high schools and engineering colleges on condition they work at venture companies after graduation. The main opposition Minjoo Party of Korea pledges to create 700,000 jobs for young people by expanding mandatory employment, curtailing working hours and increasing public sector jobs. The splinter People’s Party is vowing to introduce the “youth allowance.”
Experts give failing grades to these policies, however. “The employment of youth financed by the government can produce little effects other than creating temporary jobs,” a labor market expert said.
No less serious is the plunging turnout of young voters, which reflects their indifference to and apathy of politics, political scientists say.
According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), 68 percent of Korean youth (aged 25-34) completed higher education as of Dec. 31, way above the OECD average of 41 percent. Job market experts describe this as best “spec” (short for specification, a slang here for job qualifications) since the nation’s birth by its legendary founder Dangun in B.C. 2333. But the youth jobless rate in February soared to a record high 12.5 percent.
Also, the average marriage ages were 32.4 years for men and 29.8 years for women in 2014, 1.9 years and 2.3 years higher, respectively, from a decade before.
“The high jobless rate and delayed marriages put off young people’s entry into society, leaving them little reasons or energy to pay attention to politics,” said Professor Shin Yul of Myongji University. “The youngsters do not think participation in politics can change their lives, which drags down their voting rate further.”
Insufficient representation of young people in elections, if left to deepen, can cause serious social problems, though. “If the politics fail to represent diverse age groups and social classes, it will only end up creating a vicious circle of social and economic conflicts,” said Professor Lee Jung-hee of Hankuk University of Foreign Studies.