Dr. Shin analyses the emergence of radical polarisation and populist elites in South Korea, and how this underpinned President Yoon Suk Yeol’s political rise and demise.
South Korean president, Yoon Suk Yeol, declared martial law on 3 December 2024. His ‘self-coup’ was promptly overturned by the National Assembly. South Korea is once again experiencing peak political turmoil and may well impeach a second conservative president in less than eight years. The crisis deriving from Yoon’s decree has spiralled to another level to a constitutional crisis generating considerable political uncertainty amidst a leadership vacuum caused by the president’s impeachment.
This raises fundamental questions: why was martial law decreed in one of the most successful Asian democracies? Was this simply a political miscalculation on the president’s part? Or are there deeper societal problems behind the growing polarization in the country’s political, security, social, economic and cultural agenda?
To achieve a nuanced understanding, Dr. Shin seeks to unpack this political turmoil in the broader context of polarized politics and rising right-wing populism. South Korea has become increasingly politically divided and has now developed into a state where the danger is that each side demonizes the other. The politics of anger, resentment and hate speech towards the other is no longer confined to a noisy social media sub-culture but has become increasingly mainstream. This condition is increasingly vulnerable to populist politicians and elites. Dr. Shin analyses how radical polarization and populist elites have emerged as a distinctive feature in South Korea, and how this underpinned Yoon’s political rise and demise.
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