Are the people always right?

History shows a number of cases where election results incurred massive damage to the state.

Oh Se-jungThe author is a professor emeritus of physics and astronomy at Seoul National University and former president of SNU. After the surprising defeat of the governing party in the by-election for a Seoul district head last October, President Yoon Suk Yeol said, “The people are always right.” After the party suffered a crushing defeat in the April 10 parliamentary elections, the president pledged to “uphold the results of the vote and do my best to revamp national governance and stabilize the economy and people’s livelihoods.” His remarks certainly reflect his acceptance of the election results. Politicians in a democracy should have such attitudes because voters have the right to choose their representatives and they must bear the results of their choice. However, the proposition that the people are always right needs a reconsideration.

If a collective intelligence can unfold under the one-person, one-vote system, you can expect reasonable decisions by the voters. Given many irrational elements involved in elections, however, you cannot always ensure the best results. Just think of the July 4 general elections in the United Kingdom. Despite the opposition’s landslide victory, only five percent of the voters supported the Labour Party as they “liked its policy” while 48 percent only voted for the party to oust the Conservative Party from power, according to a poll. In other words, the voters’ antipathy toward the sitting power mattered more than a careful scrutiny of its policies in casting their ballots.

History shows a number of cases where election results incurred massive damage to the state, as seen in the dramatic rise of the Nazi Party as the majority in the 1932 German elections, which led to the emergence of the Third Reich. The German voters’ decision resulted in World War II and Germany’s defeat in the war forced its people to suffer harsh times. The appearance of populist governments in Latin America since then made those countries fail to achieve national development, including progress in democracy.

Due to such errors in voters’ judgments, election winners should be humble. Public opinion frequently changes — and even if politicians win elections, people who voted for their party often fall short of a majority. In the April 10 parliamentary elections in Korea, the opposition Democratic Party (DP) received 50.6 percent of all the votes while the governing People Power Party (PPP) took 45.1 percent of the votes. However, despite the narrow gap, the DP won a landslide victory thanks to the single-member district system. Given the 67.0 percent voter turnout in the election, only 33.9 percent — just one third of all voters — voted for the DP. In the 2022 presidential race, the gap between Yoon Suk Yeol from the PPP and Lee Jae-myung from the DP was only 0.73 percentage points. Under such circumstances, the election winner cannot take pride in winning overwhelming confidence from the people.

But the DP is taking an uncharted path after its crushing victory in the April election even though it was supported by only one third of the voters. In the meantime, President Yoon, who won the election by a narrow margin of 0.73 percent, and his administration are being criticized for a critical lack of dialogue and compromise with the opposition. Political scientists underscore the need for the sitting power to demonstrate a sense of mutual respect and restraint. If the legislative, executive and judiciary branches of the government are bent on dismissing their opponents and wielding their powers to maximum levels, it only fuels conflicts. The battle between the government and the opposition looks like two trains on a collision course.

I am not a political scientist nor a political commentator. In normal times, it may look quite strange for me to write a political commentary. But these are not ordinary times. The world is undergoing a dramatic shift from the U.S.-China competition while artificial intelligence and climate change are rapidly changing human civilization. All countries are struggling to deal with daunting challenges. But Korea suffers from the lowest fertility rate and a noticeably weakened industrial competitiveness on top of those challenges after China’s science and technology have reached the top.

It is utterly regrettable that our political circles are engrossed in fighting against one another despite the urgent need to unite and confront such challenges from home and abroad. Korea could join the ranks of developed economies thanks to the farsightedness and dedication of the past generations. What is our generation — political leaders in particular — doing for our next generation?

Translation by the Korea JoongAng Daily staff.