Classes from self-inflicted blows to democracy in South Korea and the U.S.

SEOUL, South Korea — Greater than a month after South Korea’s now-impeached president, Yoon Suk Yeol, declared martial legislation, the nation stays deep in political disaster.

The one-month mark for the reason that Dec. 3 martial legislation decree got here simply forward of Monday’s fourth anniversary of the assault on the U.S. Capitol by supporters of then-President Donald Trump on Jan. 6, 2021. Analysts are analyzing each cases — nonetheless totally different — as examples of self-inflicted wounds to democracy, and mining them for classes about easy methods to forestall them from recurring.

Challenges to democracy in South Korea and the U.S.

The South Korean and U.S. examples have clear variations. The assault on the U.S. Capitol 4 years in the past was an try and overturn election outcomes. Yoon’s martial legislation decree was geared toward breaking the resistance of an opposition-controlled parliament.

However “the essential feature of the action is similar,” argues Aurel Croissant, a political scientist at Heidelberg College in Germany. He says each moments had been makes an attempt by a sitting government “to prevent another branch of government from performing its constitutional duties and holding the government accountable.”

Political scientists name this a “self-coup.”

“The South Korean declaration of martial law is a textbook example of such a self-coup,” says Croissant, and lots of see the Jan. 6 rebellion in the US as one, too.

For a lot of South Koreans, their expertise naturally raises comparisons with the U.S. Capitol assault. That features impeached President Yoon, who argued that he ought to take pleasure in the identical absolute immunity from prison prosecution for his official acts that the Supreme Courtroom confirmed for U.S. presidents final 12 months.

South Korean legislation does certainly grant presidents immunity from prosecution, besides for costs of rebellion or treason. Yoon is being charged with rebellion.

At a press convention in Seoul on Monday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken mentioned, “We had serious concerns about some of the actions that President Yoon took and we communicated those directly to the government.”

However, he mentioned, “We have tremendous confidence in the resilience of South Korea’s democracy,” whose establishments, the U.S. has argued, have held agency.

Resistance to self-coups vs. resilience

Croissant argues that if South Korea’s establishments had held, Yoon wouldn’t have been capable of declare martial legislation, even for a couple of hours.

“South Korean’s democracy is strong in reacting to crisis,” he says, “but it’s very weak in preventing crisis.”

Whereas South Korean legislation requires the president to notify parliament of a declaration of martial legislation, and parliament can demand that the president cancel the declaration, parliament has no energy to veto it.

A part of the issue lies in the best way South Korea’s political system was designed and constructed, says Seoul Nationwide College political scientist Kang Gained-taek.

“The core of Korea’s democratization so far,” he explains, “has been focused on holding fair and democratic elections for president.”

Kang argues that the system has reached its limits, and a number of the president’s powers now should be redistributed. A debate on this concern has been occurring for some years.

The “muscle” behind self-coups

Another excuse Yoon’s self-coup failed is that the army balked at utilizing power to impose martial legislation.

One think about that, Kang says, is the occasions of Might 1980, when South Korea’s then-ruling army junta despatched troops to crush pro-democracy protests within the metropolis of Gwangju, killing round 200 civilians. “The soldiers felt extremely ashamed after witnessing the incident in Gwangju,” he says.

South Korean writer Han Kang received the Nobel Prize in literature final 12 months for books together with Human Acts, which handled the trauma of Gwangju.

In South Korea’s parliament final month, opposition flooring chief Park Chan-dae talked about two of the questions Han raises about Gwangju: “Can the past help the present?” and “Can the dead save the living?”

“As I experience the civil strife of the Dec. 3 martial law decree,” he mentioned, “I would like to answer ‘yes’ to the question, ‘Can the past help the present?’ Because May 1980 saved December 2024.”

Croissant, the political scientist in Germany, argues that as a result of leaders who stage self-coups usually require the use or the specter of power to attain their goals, lawmakers should strictly oversee militaries and safety apparatuses to see that they adhere to the structure.

The final line of protection

On the finish of the day, Croissant factors out that South Korea and the U.S. are each consultant democracies, the place folks choose representatives to manipulate for them. When the representatives fail, he provides, residents should mobilize to guard their rights themselves.

“Civil society is the last line of defense for democracy,” Croissant says, citing Daron Acemoglu, a Nobel Prize winner in economics.

South Koreans have been mobilizing for over 100 years, Croissant provides, studying classes from 35 years of Japanese colonial occupation and greater than 25 years of army dictatorships.

NPR’s Se Eun Gong contributed to this report in Seoul.