Citizens hold the key to driving politics

Our politics can be saved from the mud through the rise of mature citizenship with each individual respecting differences and engaging others for cooperation.

Cho Yoon-jeThe author is a professor emeritus of economics at Sogang University. South Koreans inevitably live under immense stress as they are crammed into densely populated and restricted land. Experiments on laboratory rats found them turning increasingly violent according to the rise in the number of rats in a limited space. Korea’s highly condensed growth and the consequential gap in wealth inequality have heightened the stress level of its inhabitants. The need for “healing” and relief from intense competition and hyper-consciousness has become a sine qua non in everyday Korean lives. Bookstore shelves are stocked with self-healing and self-care publications. Popular healing spots draw swarms of people ironically looking for respite away from the urban bustling.

Koreans are certainly frustrated and weary. But they tend to release the feeling onto others. The emergency line 119 becomes a public toilet bowl for people to flush down their anger, vitriol, pranks and damning. An estimate shows the cost of solving social conflicts in Korea is six times greater than the defense budget the country spends to protect itself from the belligerent neighbor in the north.

Koreans also tend to be harsh on their peers. Self-measurement on national competitiveness comes significantly lower than the international rating. Surveys on entrepreneurs over business environments also come out dismal versus outside observations. The answers on the confidence in government institutions and the military and life contentment levels are equally dreary. It may be because Koreans are hard on themselves or are naturally negative, prone to venting their anger in any opportunity.

Politicians and the powerful are easy targets for this. Democracy is an institution that licenses people to take their anger and stress out on politicians and the top brass. Enduring scorns and reproach are believed to be a part of their job.

Still, the assessment on presidents since they were directly elected has been exceptionally low and varied compared with other advanced democracies. There is no memorial park with a statute of a former president. No presidents mint a Korean currency coin or bill.

South Korea has achieved a miracle-like turnaround since its founding 76 years ago. No other country has industrialized, democratized and advanced to a developed ranking so quickly. The toil and blood of the people were the primary reasons for this, but if all the leaders had been so poor, the country could not have come this far. The merits and flaws are clear, and despite individual variances, each of them had done their best to live up to the expectations and duties of their time.

Politics unquestionably aggravates people’s stress. But we also should ask ourselves whether we have been excessively blaming and venting our stress on politics. Those in elected offices all had reached their positions through a strenuous and elite process.

So, why can’t they do any better? Shouldn’t we and the media feel any responsibility? The camera catches lawmakers brawling and picketing outside the National Assembly instead of them crouching over legislative bills and going around to listen to their constituencies’ troubles.

Politicians are required to steal the media spotlight to get elected and prove their values. If the public and media attention is focused on their fiery scenes, politicians should play as fighters to get nominated for candidacy and advance in the party. If they repeat such off-track practices, nothing can change.

The political environment can become healthier through changes in the ways politicians compete, are evaluated and are trained to be leaders. The system and party culture would have to be fixed, but most of all, the public and media perception on politics and politicians must change. Democracy in Korea has managed to mature through upheavals despite the relatively short history and tradition of the institution. Korea has sustained the key pillars of democracy — civil rights, freedom, free and fair elections and checks and balances. To lift politics to a healthier and benign level, civil awareness must first be elevated to a higher standard.

Our politics are undoubtedly disappointing and hopeless. But it won’t change if people are glued to the grim scene as if it were an addictive trashy reality show. The rise of extreme polarization to the left and right, populism and fandom politics are phenomena shared in other advanced countries.

The widening wealth gap and conflicts and exploitative employment of social media have been ruining and regressing democratic institutions. Nationalism and authoritative regimes are on the rise across the globe. Still, democracy and freedom are values that cannot be substituted. It would be the people bearing the wounds from the cross fires of vilification and rage. Our politics can be saved from the mud through the rise of mature citizenship with each individual respecting differences and engaging others for cooperation. At the end of the day, the citizens drive politics.

Translation by the Korea JoongAng Daily staff.