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In a country where political parties collapse

Published: 29 Apr. 2025, 00:03

Park Sang-hoon

The author is a political scientist.

Former President Yoon Suk Yeol rose to the top office because of the collapse of political parties — and for the same reason, he fell from it. He is a rare figure who began his political career as president. It was already an ominous sign when a venerable political party nominated someone with no political experience as its presidential candidate. As a result, the strange spectacle unfolded where it was not the losing Democratic Party (DP) but the winning People Power Party (PPP) that repeatedly fell into leadership crises, cycling through emergency leadership committees and acting presidents. The PPP has been in a perpetual state of crisis, never once achieving stable party management. While people often focus on Yoon’s personal shortcomings, the deeper problem lies with the party itself.

It is unimaginable to run a government without a political party. While we attach the word “Cabinet” to the prime minister’s name, as in the "Ishiba Cabinet," or “administration” after the president’s name, as in the "Donald Trump administration," the proper term to place before “government” is a party — as in the Liberal Party government or the Labour government. A government without a party would be a monarchy. Yet as a political novice, Yoon neither understood nor respected political parties or party politics. He dismissed them and looked down on them. The PPP was never treated as a true governing party. If even the ruling party was disregarded, it was all the more impossible for the opposition to be respected as a partner in governance.

A People Power Party (PPP) lawmaker voices his protest at the party general meeting held at the National Assembly complex in Yeouido, western Seoul, after then party leader Han Dong-hoon criticized the content of President Yoon Suk Yeol's address on Dec. 12, 2024. [JOONGANG ILBO]

Because Korean-style politics is dominated by opinion polls, it has become possible for individuals to ascend to the presidency. As the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu observed, opinion polls are simply another form of opinion manipulation. Public opinion can be manufactured. It can be bought with money. In Korea, presidential candidates are selected through opinion polls. In a country where favorable poll numbers are everything, adding fandom politics allows a figure to control not only public opinion but also political parties, broadcasting and the entire internet ecosystem. We are no longer in an era where politics is driven by convictions or dedication to public causes. Politics is now dominated by pandering to opinion and fandom. Politicians act like celebrities, and “audience politics” has replaced party politics, masquerading as democracy. Strictly speaking, what we have now can hardly be called politics at all.

In such a reality, it is possible for an individual to ascend to the presidency by capturing the public’s attention. But no individual can run the sprawling machinery of government alone. Anyone who believes that governance can succeed without the positive functions of a political party must imagine himself a king. In a monarchy, a king can do many things. In a democracy, it is impossible. Even in democracies like Britain, where monarchs exist, the monarch must reign but not rule. Only by “reigning without ruling” can a monarch survive. Yet what we saw was a president who attempted to govern like a king, shunning those who disagreed as disloyal and seeking to conduct governance through secretive royal-court-style relationships. Even before martial law was declared, the government had already descended into a state of anarchy and dysfunction.

The PPP has shown no interest in learning from these failures. The urgent task of rebuilding itself as a true political party has been neglected. The party’s many presidential hopefuls only boast that they alone can defeat Lee Jae-myung — an entirely misguided focus. It is the citizens who will decide who becomes president. Voters see candidates through the lens of their political parties. At present, the PPP is not a party that inspires trust. It is a party that cannot clearly explain what it has done or what it will do. This is the heart of the problem, but everyone involved seems deluded into thinking they will soon be president.

As Benjamin Disraeli, the British Conservative leader who served twice as prime minister in the 19th century, put it: “A political party is simply organized opinion.” Well-organized principles are the life of a political party. But the PPP has none. It lacks structures and systems for party members and supporters to participate consistently. Longtime party members have left, and few new members have joined. Delegates are supposed to be the lifeblood of a political party — the national convention, after all, is an abbreviation for the “national delegates’ convention” and should be the party’s highest decision-making body. Yet in the PPP, the role of delegates has disappeared. The very actors who should embody the spirit of the party are gone. The party bureaucracy — the full-time staff — forms the organizational backbone, but they too have fallen into lethargy, lacking shared goals and enthusiasm. What remains are the lawmakers, dominated by an outdated network centered around Daegu and North Gyeongsang Province. From top to bottom, the PPP as a political institution has collapsed. And yet strangely, none of the presidential candidates speak about this. They, too, are chasing personal opportunities, trapped in delusions.

Former President Yoon Suk Yeol presides over a Cabinet meeting at the presidential office in Yongsan, central Seoul on July 5, 2022. [NEWS1]

It was the 18th-century conservative philosopher Edmund Burke who first declared that “there can be no liberty without political parties.” He believed only political parties could engage in a “noble contest for power.” For Burke, democracy meant a system where, if citizens disagreed with the general principles upon which one party was founded, they could “choose another party.” Even if, as the PPP candidates claim, many citizens are turning away from Lee Jae-myung’s DP, the real question is whether the PPP is a viable alternative. If it cannot even perform the textbook functions of political parties — structuring conflict and defining alternatives — how could it be? More than a promising presidential candidate, what the PPP truly needs is someone who can lead the party into the future.

Translated from the JoongAng Ilbo using generative AI and edited by Korea JoongAng Daily staff.