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This paper investigates the state of Korean democracy by ana- lyzing 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.
Key Words: Candlelight Protest, South Korean Democracy, Internet, U.S. Beef Imports
I. Introduction
The rapid development of information and communication technologies (ICTs) has facilitated the day-to-day influence of ordinary citizens on the government. ICTs enable ordinary people to immediate influence major political decisions that affect their lives, while increasing the responsiveness of political leaders.
The months-long candlelight protests of 2008 in South Korea are a prime example of the ICTs-enabled empowerment of ordinary people. Motivated by concern over mad cow disease, the candlelight vigils were instigated by online communities that rapidly evolved into massive offline protests. Citizens demanded renegotiation of the U.S. Beef Imports Accord that was signed by the South Korean and U.S. governments on April 18. The Internet-driven public protests were successful at popular mobilization. For three and a half months (May 2-August 15), more than two thousand street rallies were held and hundreds of thousands of citizens participated in candlelight vigils. However, President Lee Myung-bak and his administration ignored and even repressed the protests. In a similar reaction, the political society did not tackle the issue in a positive way, leading to a direct confrontation between the government and the civil society.
These events...