South Korean Democracy in the Digital Age: The Candlelight Protests and the Internet

This paper investigates the state of Korean democracy by analyzing the candlelight protests of 2008. Candlelight vigils were expressions of significant transformation in the Korean civic landscape. Teens and women armed with the Internet and new values led the street demonstrations protesting the importation of U.S. beef. The protests resulted from a serious problem with the public feedback mechanism in the Korean democratic system. The candlelight vigils were largely a reaction to a perception gap between President Lee Myung-bak and the Korean people, the President’s “bulldozer-like” leadership style, and the inability of political parties to mediate the conflict between the government and people. Solutions can be found in reforming the system in such a way that enables popular voices to be heard more effectively, while sustaining the basis of representative democracy. One of the solutions is to foster political communication between political leaders and the public. Rather than clamping down on the Internet, the government should take advantage of the Web portals in a positive way in order to promote political communications with ordinary citizens.