The alarming rise of fandom-based populists

What saddens us is that political parties have lost the ability to nurture dignified politicians.

Park Sang-hoonThe author is a political scientist and a former guest researcher fellow at the National Assembly Futures Institute. Some could mourn the trade-off of individualism and imagination in today’s “Dead Poets Society” classrooms, but what is more worrisome for Koreans is that we live in a “Dead Politicians Society,” a democracy with the void of true politicians. As education loses meaning if it cannot inspire imagination from poetry, a democracy lacking worthy politicians can be hazardous.

In democracy, politics make up the battlefield. Unlike a monarchy or aristocracy, democracy gives the right to govern to elected politicians. Democracy can be rotten if it is bred on bad politics. If an election does not work to elect able politicians, there is no hope for good politics or democracy. Popular dictators like Donald Trump in the United States as well as Vladimir Putin in Russia can be born. In our side of society, judges, prosecutors, lawyers and law professors dominate the election roster.

While law practitioners wrangle over past deeds, politicians must fight for the future. While lawyers borrow laws to make someone pay the price for a past deed and bring justice, politicians find rewards from broadening the horizon for changes for a better future.

The legal profession serves its role best when it does not chase power or partisanship. But politicians are innately oriented toward power. German sociologist Max Weber in his “Politics as a Vocation” essay argued that a politician should have the special ability to balance the ethics of “moral conviction” and “responsibility” to the greater good. A politician cannot act out of the partisan context. If it is not unclear where the politician stands on growth, welfare, alliances or peace, they cannot be held accountable for their actions. A politician therefore must be bred and trained to bear responsibility, a duty a party must fulfill.

Democracy gains value when politics work well. In all democratic societies, civilian groups’ interests and their passion can contradict and clash. Politics work through these conflicts and seek compromise in the self-serving civilian demands. Only the public decisions born through such procedures have validity. Only then can citizens respect and comply with the laws and public policies regardless of their partisan bias. Without politics of mutual responsibility by political parties, democracy cannot buttress society’s wellbeing and unity.

An election must serve as a civilian celebration and assembly to debut political talents trained by parties to bring about positive changes. Otherwise, candidate nominations and elections can turn into gambling sites inviting the powerful who are better off outside politics.

If people who should stay away from politics dominate parties and wield power, democracy can become a nightmare. That sad case is becoming our reality. When politicians are deemed unreliable, voters and party members come forward to replace them. The call for direct democracy allowing citizens or party members to directly influence decisions have rapidly gained grounds. The run-up to the April 10 parliamentary elections epitomized such popular demand. Political parties maximized the participation of the general public and party members in nominating their candidates by the means of public polls. Polls have never been so prevalent in elections as in the coming one. Such an unprecedented nomination process required astronomical money, but what’s more surprising is that the cost of polls was dumped on the candidates themselves.

Polling firms enjoyed a heyday. Parties willingly surrendered their role of breeding talents to become recruit agents. Fandoms from zealous citizens and party members determined the poll outcomes. Fandom-based populists all champion the sovereignty of voters and party members. Those populists have become the biggest winners in grabbing nominations thanks to the novel approach. In the meantime, parties have morphed into fandom-based organizations. Party pluralism essential for the advancement of democracy has disappeared. The victors dominated justice, and anyone raising an objection became a dissident.

Everyone talks about participatory democracy and popular sentiment. But we cannot tell whether we are heading to poll stations to elect legislators or combatants. Enthusiasts aspire for a one-party state where only their party prevails and knocks the competition off the field. They are engulfed by their eagerness to win the election out of their blind hatred of the rivalling party. Voters are turning more violent and rude. It cannot be pleasant if one’s passionate support comes at the expense of oppressing the opponent.

What saddens us is that political parties have lost the ability to nurture dignified politicians. They are morphing into novel agents who help realize the ambition of fandom populists.

Translation by the Korea JoongAng Daily staff.