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The January 6, 2021, assault on the US Capitol produced some extraordinary photos. However for sheer narrative drama, look to the South Koreans.
In the dark on December 3, 2024, former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol introduced — on stay TV — that he was imposing martial legislation. Over the following a number of hours, hundreds of Korean protesters massed exterior the nationwide parliament constructing whereas particular forces troops helicoptered onto the garden.
Almost 200 lawmakers barricaded themselves inside to unanimously vote down the martial legislation declaration. In one of the well-known photos from the night time, opposition chief and now-President Lee Jae Myung leapt a fence to enter the legislature after police blocked the doorways.
Each the bounce — and the vote — succeeded: Yoon was impeached, faraway from workplace and simply final week, sentenced to jail. One Korean skilled described the decision as “a uncommon instance of democratic resilience” in an interview with the BBC.
South Korea’s political leaders deserve some credit score for that end result. Although the nation is deeply polarized, leaders in each Yoon’s get together and the opposition mobilized shortly to finish his tried rebel.
However new analysis by Korean students additionally factors to a different, equally vital story: Strange Korean residents noticed the authoritarian risk as so apparent and so pressing that they too mobilized in opposition to it.
Koreans extremely worth their younger democracy. The nation elected its first president of the fashionable period in 1987, after toppling a navy dictatorship. Since then, South Korea has cycled by way of progressive and conservative leaders — and endured repeated corruption scandals. Yoon, a relative political newcomer and former prosecutor basic who helmed the corruption case in opposition to disgraced former President Park Geun-hye, rode a wave of anti-incumbent sentiment to the presidency in 2022.
As soon as in workplace, nonetheless, Yoon struggled to make a mark. He misplaced the 2024 midterms. Tormented by low approval scores and brazenly nostalgic for South Korea’s prior dictatorship, Yoon grew more and more paranoid about Communist infiltration. When he declared martial legislation in December 2024, it was on the pretext of defending the nation from North Korean sympathizers and different “anti-state” forces.
However Korean residents largely (if not totally) rejected this narrative. The nation has an unusually energetic tradition of protest, rooted within the profitable motion to overthrow the navy dictatorship. That historical past helps clarify why hundreds mobilized inside minutes to contest Yoon’s declaration.
“The excessive degree of civic consciousness and voluntary participation was important in restoring democratic resilience,” professors Lee Jae-seung and Lee Dae-joong write in a 2025 paper extracting classes from the Korean disaster.
“Whereas a smaller variety of residents might need been simply overpowered by the navy, they exhibited no worry of the armed forces and as an alternative actively sought to confront them. Some demonstrated extraordinary braveness by bodily blocking the paths of armoured autos with their our bodies,” Lee and Lee proceed. With out them, the students conclude, Yoon might have arrested — and even doubtlessly executed — some lawmakers earlier than parliament might vote to override the martial legislation declaration.
In some ways, this episode challenges typical fascinated by democratic resilience. Political scientists and democracy activists sometimes deal with structural components (improvement degree, polarization), institutional design (presidential versus parliamentary programs), or uncooked energy politics (what number of seats the manager’s get together controls) to clarify why authoritarians succeed or fail.
All these items matter — there’s no one-size-fits-all idea of democratic collapse — however how strange folks perceive and reply to the risk issues, too. South Korea exhibits that when persons are satisfied that there’s a risk to their political freedoms, they’ll go to extraordinary lengths to defend them.
The actionable recommendation right here is simple: Folks with political affect and platforms must work to make the authoritarian risk extra apparent to extra folks. The survival of democracy might rely — to an extent not absolutely appreciated — on strange residents’ narratives and perceptions.
