| Knowledge-Net for a Better World |
July 2019 |
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South Korea’s Tamed Populism:
Popular Protests From Below and Populist Politics from the Top
Working Paper Series (Populism in Asia) |
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| "The Different Faces of Populism in Asian Democracies" |
With an increase in dissatisfaction of liberal democratic systems around the world, populism has taken the center stage in all facets of life, especially in the discourse of politics and governance. In order to address this global issue, the Asia Democracy Research Network (ADRN) has been conducting research on populism based on country cases since 2017. ADRN was established by the East Asia Institute (EAI) in 2013 with funding from the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) to strengthen civil society in Asia and promote democratic norms and values.
As part of ADRN research project, EAI has planned a special working papers series. This series is composed of six working papers, and the publication schedules is as follows:
1) South Korea’s Tamed Populism: Popular Protests From Below and Populist Politics from the Top (Issue on 2nd July 2019)
2) Populism in Taiwan: a Bottom-up Model (Issue on 9th July 2019)
3) Contemporary Populism and Democratic Challenges in the Philippines (Issue on 16th July 2019)
4) The Changing Nature of Populism in Malaysia (Issue on 23rd July 2019)
5) Populism in Contemporary Indian Politics (Issue on 30th July 2019)
6) Populism in Thailand (Issue on 6th August 2019)
To start this series, EAI is publishing the South Korean case, written by Dr. Sook Jong Lee, Professor at Sungkyunkwan University and Former president of the East Asia Institute. Throughout this paper, Dr. Lee reviews and analyzes the issue of populism in the case of South Korea, and highlights specific cases of popular protests and populist politics to discuss the uniqueness of the Korean populism and its impacts on the country's democracy. She argues that the South Korean populism is not the same as that of Europe and South America, where charismatic populists and majority rule remain dominant. Yet it does share many core elements of populism in the following ways: anti-elitism that grants decisions of the plebiscite more legitimacy than those of the elite; a political discourse centered on moral grounds; and a movement that is largely flamed by rising economic inequality. What makes populism in South Korea unique, she suggests, is that “South Korea’s vertical populism can largely be characterized as ‘tamed populism’ with more positive than negative results” compared to most populist movements in Western democracies.   |
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