Civil Society Projects Viewed Through Assemblies and Protests (II): Assemblies and Protests and Democracy in Post-Democratization Korea

Politics is said to be a 'living thing,' and assemblies and protests are also living things. Assemblies and protests in Korea continue to evolve at a speed that perplexes even experts. The 2008 candlelight protests were a historical experiment with no clear participants, leadership, focal point, established format, or predetermined conclusion. Naturally, interpretations vary widely. Various political forces attempted to co-opt the candlelight protests for their own purposes but were rejected. Now, assemblies and protests have become commonplace, widespread, and universal in Korean democracy. Assemblies and protests are no longer battlefields requiring sacrifice, but rather vibrant public squares for expressing citizens' opinions, interests, and passions.

This EAI research reaffirms the significance of assemblies and protests in Korea since democratization. Assemblies and protests hold a unique position in Korean politics. Mass mobilization played a crucial role in dismantling authoritarianism and transitioning to democracy in Korea. Unlike many new democracies where the experience of large-scale assemblies and protests has become a mere 'memory,' the myth of mass mobilization remains a present reality in Korea even after democratization.

However, significant changes are also being observed in the patterns and methods of assemblies and protests. Street protests are increasing, the participants in protests are changing, and inequalities in institutional politics are reproduced in non-conventional protest politics. Political protests against the government continue, and the notion that large-scale, long-term, and illegal protests are effective is a 'well-founded' popular belief, while coordination and negotiation remain insufficient.

The argument for the 'uselessness of assemblies and protests,' which laments a 'protest republic' by emphasizing the economic damage caused by them, has now lost its persuasiveness. Public opinion regarding assemblies and protests is not particularly negative, even amidst a poor economic situation. Assemblies and protests are now an unremovable and unavoidable constant in Korean democracy. However, the interpretations of this phenomenon diverge sharply. Some view assemblies and protests as a distorted phenomenon that should be absorbed into institutional representative politics, while others see them as a field of transformation with dynamic energy. The former urges 'the swift restoration of party politics,' while the latter dreams of a 'dual power' between representative democracy and 'street democracy.'

Perhaps the true value of assemblies and protests in Korean democracy lies somewhere between these underestimation and overestimation. Assemblies and protests cannot replace party politics. However, the reality of Korean democracy is too desperate, and the historical weight of assemblies and protests is too burdensome, to merely repeat textbook notions of normalizing institutional politics. It is a time that requires a humble approach to reflect on Korea's constantly evolving and self-reforming assemblies and protests, rather than dismissing or idealizing them, and to institutionalize the passion of civil society to enrich our democracy.