[Citizen College Season 8] Lecture1. The Future of Democracy in South Korea
“How will democracy survive?”
If democracy basically means the realization of national sovereignty, the two challenges that threaten democracy today come from populism and technocracy. Korea is not immune from these challenges. Through reflection on our experience, we may find the wisdom to overcome the current difficulties.
From the 2016-2017 candlelight protests and the impeachment of the president, which raised the profile of Korean democracy, to the 1898 Manmin Communal Assembly, we can look back at events that have advanced democracy throughout the 150 years of Korea’s modern history. In between the 1898 meeting and the 2016-2017 candlelight protests and impeachment of the president, there was the March 1 Independence Movement in 1919, the April Revolution in 1960, the Gwangju Democratization Movement in May 1980, and the June 1987 uprising.
While the socioeconomic conditions and the aspirations of the actors are different, one key word that runs through each of these events is citizen. South Korean citizens have transformed the country’s political reality through resistance from the outside of institutions and from below when the distance between sovereigns and their representatives has grown, when representatives have privatized delegated power, and when existing institutions have failed to respond to changing circumstances and citizen demands.
Speaker Nam-Kook Kim(Director of Peace&Democracy Institute) insisted “Only when we constantly seek institutional configurations that are closer to a mixed government and interact with citizens who have developed epistemological capacities for right and wrong and emotional capacities to respond in solidarity with others, can our democracy move toward a real democracy that ensures socioeconomic equality and socio-cultural recognition.”
Date and Time : 25th, April, 2024. 14:00 ~ 16:00 pm
Venue : room 201, Political Science and Economics Building
Speaker: Professor Nam-Kook Kim (PSIR, Korea University)
