[Koo Bon-young Column] Populist Election Campaigns and Ochlocracy

The digital ecosystem created by the internet is not a utopia. That was the view of Tim Berners-Lee, who invented the World Wide Web (WWW) in 1989. In his book, "This Is for Everyone," he lamented that "the current digital world is driven not by our 'intentions' but by what grabs our 'attention,' like absurd headlines or funny memes." In fact, websites and social media have long been flooded with sensational headlines and provocative thumbnails.
The main voting day for the June 3 local elections is fast approaching. At the start of the campaign, the ruling party was widely expected to score a landslide victory. Later, polls also showed a growing number of competitive races. What shook public sentiment, however, was not policy competition. Candidates increasingly avoided broadcast debates and relied on YouTube promotion. In the rush to win popularity, the search for truth was pushed aside. It was a scene that seemed to echo the digital dystopia Berners-Lee had warned about.
Perhaps it was a case of the rich protecting themselves. Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) candidates who were leading in early approval ratings were reluctant to debate. As a result, in major battlegrounds outside Busan, only one TV debate was held. That barely satisfied the requirements of the Public Official Election Act. In past local elections, Seoul Metropolitan City mayoral candidates held as many as five TV debates, but this time there was only one. It was even scheduled for a late-night slot, from 11 p.m. on the 28th for two hours, as if hoping for low viewership.
Instead, off-stage attacks and YouTube Shorts promotion campaigns were in full swing. The Seoul mayoral race between DPK candidate Jeong Won-oh and People Power Party candidate Oh Se-hoon was a prime example. The dispute over missing rebar in the GTX-A Samseong station section was a case in point. Lee Jae-myung ordered a safety inspection, as if providing cover, while the ruling bloc and Jeong's camp raised suspicions that the Seoul Metropolitan Government had covered up the issue. Oh's camp then countered that it had reported 51 items related to missing rebar to Korea National Railway under the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport from October last year through April this year. Rather than trading barbs from the sidelines, the proper course would have been to seek voters' judgment through an open debate.
From a candidate's perspective, of course, YouTube promotion offers better value for money than broadcast debates. The reason is not simply that the influence of old media such as television has faded. Preparing for a TV debate, where unexpected variables can arise, requires at least a full day. For Jeong, who has been stung by allegations involving a past drunken violence incident and a trip to Cancun, TV or radio debates may well seem like a lose-lose proposition.
But when official debates shrink, negative campaigning outside the formal arena tends to flourish. The election campaign also became an all-out race to please voters. Promises to hand out cash were everywhere, yet no one offered a clear plan for how to pay for them. Issues that divide voters were not even mentioned. One example is the consolidation of schools amid declining school-age populations by region.
The harm caused by populist electioneering is clear. It blocks voters' right to know and turns individuals into fools. As Plato once warned, democracy has a strong tendency to degenerate into ochlocracy, where the preferences of the masses become morality. The problem is that the victims of ochlocracy are ultimately the very crowds swept up by populism. A banner on the street reading "Cash bomb before the election, tax bomb after the election" may capture that message.
Amid this election campaign, share prices for semiconductor companies such as Samsung Electronics and SK hynix are soaring. Looking at the stature of these global top-tier companies brings to mind a remark by the late Lee Kun-hee, former chairman of Samsung Electronics. At a meeting with Beijing correspondents in 1995, he sparked controversy by saying, "Companies are second-rate, politics is fourth-rate." Big companies, then and now, are hardly free of problems. Even so, when one sees the low-grade election campaign that encourages ochlocracy, his criticism feels newly relevant.
French political philosopher Joseph de Maistre once said, "Every nation gets the government it deserves." In that sense, Switzerland offers a useful reference point, as it puts populist policies to a referendum. Last year, Swiss voters overwhelmingly rejected a "super-rich tax proposal" that would have imposed a high inheritance tax on the ultra-wealthy. A few years earlier, they also rejected by a wide margin a "Basic Income Proposal" that would have provided 3 million won a month. They judged that the plans were not sustainable and that the side effects, including capital flight, would be greater.
To escape the swamp of ochlocracy, voters' discernment is essential. Our voters, too, must cast their ballots wisely on the 3rd. It is time to recall Jean-Jacques Rousseau's warning: "The people are treated as sovereigns only on election day, and after the election they become the government's slaves again."
kby777@fnnews.com Reporter