I'm from Spain. I want the major parties back. I wish the major parties would team up against fascists, communists, and catalan/basque nazis who are turning our country upside down.
@@DudeWatIsThis the fact htta you think catalans are nazis tells me everything i need to know about you. they are leftists and they deserve their independence. fascists have always been from spain, and catalans have always paid the price
@@DudeWatIsThis Do you think Catalan should have a referendum that decide how those people want to be governed themselves? What's the difference between {Hong Kong, Tibet, and Taiwan, not wanting to be governed by China} and {Catalan not wanting to be governed by Spain}? I'm not very familiar with the topic, by the way.
@@muhammadmustafa2946 Nah man, UK has like 5 political parties at minimum in the congress. There are 2 which are the big ones, but the small ones can be swifting parties when u need to pass certain laws :)
The fact that americans think their political system is the usual one in the developed countries is wild. Even more when it's one of the most fucked up electoral systems and we laugh about it a lot in Europe...
In my opinion, south korean democracy is like having legal coup every 5 years. You are basically king for 5 years with no resistance, no check in power from other branches, then you are sacked aftherward as you leave the office. Literally, there were more former presidents who were either accused of crimes, or served times in the prison than the one who weren't. They have weak parliment, subordinate juridical branch under the all powerful excutive branch that change every 5 years (but the catch is you only get 1 term). So every 5 years everything flips and changes as the government and their policies changes. So there is no long term consistency in korean government, and their policies. This inconsistency makes them somewhat struggle in the fields that require long term commitment, consistent policies, and the stability, like for example, long term investments and foreign deplomacy. Korea has sour relationship with all of her neighbors, as korea don't really commit to her foreign policies. But to be fair, having japan, china, north korea, russia, and america (base) as your neighbors isn't easy. Mean while japan is like opposite of korea. They have weak executive power, and way too powerful parliment, that been under control of LDP ever since it's inception. Many people know that china is the one party system, but not many people know that japan is very similar to china, the fact that they been under one party rule for very long time. Yes, there were several times where LDP were briefly out of power, so japan does have democracy, and all the member of parliments are democratically elected, so they are technically democratic. However if you ask me if their democracy is actually working, I would say no. Since they have the government that never changes, they have very consistent, and stable policies, but the problem is that they rarely changes, even the outdated policies. Saying this, I don't think south korea will stagnate in japanese fashion, where they slowly fall down to recession, but rather it's going to be more dynamic and chaotic, where they will either make it or break it.
Agreed on all counts. Japan has what is called a "dominant party system" just like most individual states in the US. It's better than a true one-party system because the Party can't get away with as much press censorship and such things, but it does have the problems you described. One interesting thing about Japan's system, is that the LDP has been in power so long, that the opposition party just doesn't have any governing experience (which is why they were voted out after only one term the last time they were in power. I do kind of wonder if that would change if the local and regional governments were more autonomous, like in federations and devolved governments.
SK, the US and to an extent the UK is why I've come to believe that two-party systems cannot properly work. You end up picking between two bad choices. Many different parties elected via ranked choice voting forced to cooperate as coalitions is the safest way to ensure that the will of the majority of people is actually properly represented
The emphasis needs to be on changing the rules of voting to encourage more parties with more representative wins. Going "just vote third party" is always going to be useless if the voting rules heavily favor two parties, like they do in the USA.
In the Netherlands the CDA which for decades was the largest party in the country has pretty much dissolved. It's something that can happen in a multi-party state where obsolete parties just lose seats election on election and once it's clear the party is done it just dissolves and it's members usually go to other parties.
@@secretname4190 Oh, absolutely. We took on the neo-liberalism more than almost any country in Europe and we are really paying for it now with how much we hollowed out our government.
@@secretname4190While we do have some (pretty big) problems, I look forward to the next elections and I'm sure things will get better again. That's the beauty of a system with many parties, they're all falling over one another trying to win your vote. Rightwing parties will just adapt left wing policy because otherwise the other slightly less rightwing party might and steal your votes and vice versa.
I’ve been getting slowly interested in learning modern Korean politics. There’s very little videos about it unless they’re from Korea so this video is very appreciated.
I've been doing the same thing, but with Japanese politics. Similarly, like you said with coverage of Korean politics, it's rare to find English videos/articles covering Asian politics.
@@jayklink851hey man. I've actually been doing the same recently. I've found a few good sources. If you get a cookie deleting extension on chromium based browsers you can read infinite Japan Times articles for free. This is great for up-to-date news yet you've probably heard of it already. There is also a channel called Langley Esquire. It stopped uploading a while ago yet I find their 101 series very enlightening. They also have a "Deep Dive" podcast which releases weekly that looks into some underreported current event. Don't forget the "New books podcast" which has a Japanese Studies version. Also don't forget books! There is a huge Oxford Handbook on Japanese politics. There is a Routelege one (I believe it's routelege) on foreign policy. There are also more specialist texts to read about which are too numerous to even begin to name.
Some lecture videos by Dr. David Field at the University of Wisconsin might be helpful for you. His area is limited to Rhee Syngman's political life in the early 20th century, but gives a good insight into the general nature of South Korean politics for, in particular, American audience.
put it simply, SK conservative party is for pro-america, pro-japan on the other hand SK democratic party is for pro-china, pro-north korea. This is no debating matter.
As a middle-aged Korean, this is a big concern which I hope we can find a way to bring things back on track, especially for the children. I agree that politics is the biggest threat to South Korea. To be fair, this is a problem not only of South Korea, but also of many other countries as well. In South Korea, the dynamic history made the social characteristics extremely complicated. So many things happened, especially along the rapid modernization of the society. I believe one of the major problems which Koreans are dealing with everyday is the conflict among generations. I think the Korean society is composed of five distinct generations. First, there are people who were born before the liberation. For them, Japan still is the biggest threat. Second, there are people who experienced the Korean War. For them, socialist countries, such as North Korea and China, still are the biggest threat. Third, there are people who experienced the rapid economic growth in 70-80s. For them, people who collapsed the strong leadership are the biggest threat. Fourth, there are people who collapsed the dictatorship then. For them, people who have nostalgia for the high-growth dictatorship period are the biggest threat. Fifth, there are people who experienced the Asian economic crisis in 90s. For them, third and fourth groups are the biggest threat, keeping the country from moving anywhere. Fifth, there are people who were born after the Asian economic crisis. They don’t care much as they don’t have much expectation. I do not think conflicts are bad. People have different thoughts out of different experiences. They just need to be addressed properly and resolved fairly. In that sense, I think conflicts are the basis of politics, as politicians are supposed to resolve them. However, they have not. Each has focused only on the interests of its supporting group. However, I am still positive that we will eventually find out a way to bring things back on track. Not through politicians though. People in South Korea have repetitive experiences and resultant expertise to clean up the mess made by politicians, throughout the 5,000-year history.
@@Fire-ci4seI cannot say it’s false, especially Foxconn’s former CEO Terry Gou (Guo Tai-Ming) is running for president of Taiwan, it’s crazy how things have happened this year.
@Skyjy10 Not just that, the government's bend over backwards to help the oligarchs . Taiwan was having severe drought with farmers struggling, but the government was subsidising preferential water for TSMC .
I've lived in Korea for 10 years and I've always felt Korean overreact to any bid of bad news. I feel the same way about this political "crisis." Having opposition parties who disagree with each other is not a crisis, and happens regularly in every other democracy in the world, and Korean society is hardly crumbling -- everything is humming along as it always has. Not perfect, sure, but nothing is. The elevation of this to "crisis" has me worrying that Koreans are going to go along the path of other democracies where right-wing politicians are openly flirting with getting rid of democracy all-together. Democracy is a terrible system -- and yet much better than the alternatives. We really need to remember that.
I agree with the sentiment that the sensationalization of today's problems may lead to a surge of far-right ideals, but to combat that we need to acknowledge the crisis, not downplay it. Sure, the society looks as if it's flowing well on the surface, but relieving oneself because of that is both complicit and short-sighted.
@@roallposselt4527the ancient Greek city states had direct democracy. Didnt work out so great for them. People dont always make the most rational choices and tend to fall to propaganda fairly easily
This I can agree on. It's ruining the U.S., it's ruining the UK, South Korea, Canada, France, Germany, South Africa, Argentina, and many others. With all those political issues, you'd think the PRC would be promoting their style of Communism as a way of gaining soft power, or promoting more military coups.
I do think the mass use of social media has something to do with that. Politics in democracies weren't great before mass social media, but mass social media gave powerful interests even more tools that bypass rational thought to manipulate the public. Across countries the boomer generation seems absolutely unable to resist the combined power of propaganda news and a social media bubble, which makes it really hard to for any meaningful consensus to occur.
seems like they just have to broaden the demoncratic options. The Eropean democratic system with multiple fractions is better than the american dual-democatic system
But there should also be a consensus in the public at large and institutions that work (economists often pointing to institutions as the best place to start for sustainable economic development). Bulgaria has a multi party system and their politics is shit, collpasing every so often. Italy has had a notorious political history for being so unstable (tho the current gov seems to be doing a bit better). Spain, Germany and France currently have far right parties as 2nd or 3rd biggest polling parties.
@@rizkyadiyanto7922 The US party system is hihgly influenced by electoral system, ballot access, cost, media access etc. Voter behaviour also matters. They don't forbid more than 2 parties but the lift is quite high for them to win at higher levels. There are 2 in the US senate but one basically takes out one party by winning their primary. They also caucus with one of the 2 parties anyway. Only 1 of them really runs in a 3 way race and it is in a small state where the voters are more adventurous which is not typical of most states. UK and CAN also are 2 party plus systems where 3rd parties win seats but are usually irrelevant at the national level due to the first past the post single member district system. AUS has 2 chambers of the legislature. The upper chamber uses multi member districts and ranked voting. That has broken their duopoly. Lower chamber uses just ranked voting in single member districts and while 3rd parties do win seats, it is largely still a 2 party plus system.
South Korea uses parallel voting, some seats are single winner first past the post but also has 15.6% of seats elected by party list. It is similar to Germany except the list seats are far fewer (in Germany the list seats are half). In Germany the list seats are distributed taking into account the proportionality of the constituency seats. So if a big party has more seats than they should have they won't get many list seats. South Korea's list seats didn't care about proportionality of the constituency seats. They changed them so 30 out of 47 of the list seats now do operate like Germany's and take into account proportionality. It was tinkering to try to arrest the distortion of first past the post constituency seats. However, the 2 main parties just set up satellite parties so they get the full number of seats from the list vote. So it's all pointless and defacto still allows 2 dominant parties with small satellite parties to render the proportional part of the vote toothless. I mean it's just slightly better than say the UK and Canada and USA using just first the past single member districts. To get a european style multi party system requires more proportional seats, multi member districts and voters to vote for actual 3rd parties. It's rare and difficult to get winners in the current system to make signficant reform to the system.
It's every single country that uses plurality voting/first past the post/single seat constituencies. It's a system that garutnees there are only 2 parties, regardless of the people's desires, demographics, opinions, etc
@@noname-wo9yy It is not. There are only 2 options in the UK's first past the post system. Voting for a third party is wasting your vote. The solution is to adapt literally any of the systems that other European countries use
@potato_nugget you can argue proportional representation is also wasting your vote as the major parties are held hostage by the smaller ones needed to make up the coalition. The threshold for change in a two party system is higher that's all. Don't blame the system, blame the people who don't vote critically or at all.
Yoon Seok-Yeol came to power on the back of a anti-feminist and justice focused campaign. He took the resentment some on the right had against recent social campaigns and turned it to his gain, something being done across the world currently. However, he's been beset by issues from day one and there are weekly protests in Seoul over him. One of the big things after the Itaewon crush was how there were hardly any police officers in the area of what was known to be the biggest event of the year, when there had been plenty deployed earlier that day to deal with anti-Yoon protesters... On top of that, young people have a general apathy to politics in Korea. There was a popular saying called "Hell Choseon" or Korean hell, which was a funny joke to most Koreans about the state of their country and job prospects. People get into so much debt here trying to fit in and look like they're living a good life, even for small purchases, or what some call shibal biyong, or fuck it expense. In their mind, what's the point in saving when you'll never afford an apartment to buy anyways? I love Korea, I'm so proud to live here, but there's a massive polarisation in their society now. It wasn't caused by Yoon, but it's been highlighted and made massively worse by him. Open corruption and over reliance with chaebols (particularly with Samsung, which is too big to fail for Korea), pardoning of former presidents and top officials over charges, the system is rotten like many other countries and needs to change, or else their economic and political woes will only get worse....
Nah, bro, He came to power because the former DPK government nominated him to chief prosecutor expecting him to be their puppet, but he actually did his job right and prosecuted corrupt people on the DPK side. This pissed off the DPK so they hauled his ass on national television to shame him and fire him. This turned him into a symbol for equal justice and got him elected. Don't gaslight people, my dude. Had the DPK left him alone, he'd still be a lawyer. They made him President by going after him.
aside of the Itaewon unintended stampede, East Asian politics are at best something that most youths didn't bat an eye on. Unlike in the Western world where the youth's voice can bring a huge impact, the Eastern World... eh, it barely makes it into the government's ears... unless there's a huge mobilization. I would say they're apathetic to politics, and thinking that it would be the best for the "experts" to deal with it. Same goes with the Japanese, giving on how little the Japanese youth is meddling with politics
Yup. Forget half the population, pander to misogynists in your politics, then wonder why less women are wanting to having kids or form families. It's far more than economics although that is a factor, there's a movement of south Korean women refusing to date and aren't okay with how things are.
5:03 The PPP has only been around for a few years. South Korea has had a bunch of parties come and the PPP emerged after the merger of multiple conservative parties
I was going to say it weirdly kind of matches the political fiasco of a country like the Czech Republic in a weird way until I realized you could also apply it to a lot of other countries
South Korean DPK party is basically the Communist party. Korea would’ve been at a huge crisis if they won last election. Both parties corrupt but picking the lesser of the two evils kind of deal haha
Korea has two parties. One is extremely bad the other is rather good. Korea has been progressed under good one. So 2 steps forward and 1 step backward per 5 years.
@nxtlvlnlkr5312 It seems everyone feels they're the most doomed, lol. I'm currently working in US and my colleagues also say they are the worst. Also, friends in Japan and France are saying they are the worst. In my opinion(if it means anything)I think Korea is in the worst state, though.
Basically all youth on the earth are quite messed up for the same reason, unless something substantially changed which could allow fair distribution of wealth. Unfortunately the top 1% would never allow this to happen.
📌It's because social media encourages binary thinking and extreme polar opposites. It's either you're the best coach ever or the worst coach ever, there's no nuance. Politics has always been polarized but it has increased 100 times. Back then I never knew who my P.E. teacher voted for, but now I know who 300 of my friends voted for. I've seen more political discourse in the last 5 years than my entire adult life combined.
You're looking at the symptoms and completely missing the point. The two major parties in about every corner of the Earth have pushed for the same centrist policy without rocking the boat for decades. The people, willing change, are growing frustrated, and therefore it is necessary to raise the stakes. By giving a platform to the far-right elements, as the "outsiders" that catch the dissatisfied voter and as a punching bag for your average centre-left party, you generate more turnout, which sustains the flawed system of western democracy. Polarization is a natural consequence of the unending radicalisation of the right wing in this case, and because it is not ending, it encourages the your average centre-left party to abuse negative campaigns as the means of getting many votes while promising little, which naturally leads to dehumanization of opponents on both sides.
It’s interesting to see how people from outside Korea and inside Korea view Korean politics differently. I guess it’s natural, because language barriers get the strongest it can get when it comes to politics. That being said, although this video could not cover the specific narratives employed by the two parties, it still nails how politically divided Korea is now, based on objective data. I guess this is the approach I should take to understand other countries’ politics as well.
They're dealing with a US style duopoly because they have a copy of the US political system. The British system is still duopoly but half of the last four British and Canadian elections haven't been majority governments, at least.
@@Anti-FreedomD.P.R.ofSouthKorea South Korea has a presidential system with the vast majority of its legislature being elected by first past the post. That's a combination that inevitably leads to duopoly whatever the people want because of the competition between the two institutions and Duverger's law inside both of them.
1:20 i would like to correct you on the fact that in the 1960s, south koreas GDP per capita was said to be under 200 dollars, 1000 is a very generous amount for a nation like korea at that time
No matter what liberals may say, this is by design. South Korea is the republic of Samsung, LG and Hyundai, as well as close strategic military-ally close to China for the USA. This rule of the country may not be challenged by socialists or other progressive movements, so it's best to disenfranchise people from politics.
Lol "disenfranchise" hilarious... South Korean presidential election turnout was 77%, far higher than the 66% of US's 2020 election and Japan's 55%. South Korean public is far more politically active and aware than what some people in this comment section might think. They were also responsible for mass protests which resulted in the former president being impeached. They then elected the relatively progressive opposition party's leader as their next president. Samsung's heir and ceo was also implicated with a scandal with that same president and was jailed.
@Chuckakhan I am German. @beatlemania8273 disenfranchising people from politics and government doesn't have to stop them from voting, but lower their expectations and most importantly do not let your voters think there's an alternative to areas like economic organisation and foreign policy. Germany also had 76% turnout in the last election and I would still same about Germany.
You do know that South Korea refuses too condemn China by abstaining on UN votes on Xinjiang and Hong Kong right. They didn’t even ban huawei and is part of the belt and road initiative.
The European media seem to be more informed and have a better understanding of South Korea than they used to be. In the past, European media often quoted simple, easy narratives from noisy SKorean leftists bragging about how they won and that was a bunch of narcissistic bullshit. Politics here has always been messy and never easy. It seems clear to me now. It's not just a Korean problem, it's a problem that everyone in the free world is suffering from, and we don't know what to do about it.
The corporate dynasties (Samsung, KT, Hyundai, etc.) haven't taken down a peg because the country is very reliant on its economy. It's almost like they're monarchies, but just a corporate version. Yoon's domestic policies have been a disaster, and to simply put it, a lot of SK politicians have always had dirty hands when I'm looking in from the outside.
Yeah but they are taxing them hard(60percent inheritance tax if you inherit a company) and those corporates higher more than most of the other globally competing corporates....
Every single time you hear the story of a country reaching developed status, you'll also hear the expression "cheap labor". To be clear, these are generations of workers who were exploited in abject misery with hopes that wealth would eventually trickle down. Since the 1900s, foreign aid is also always mentioned. That's meritocracy for you.
Cheap labor doesn't necessarily mean exploitation although it's usually what's happening. But in case south Korea the exploitation still seems to be going on nowadays
@@myxomat00sisit doesn't because it doesn't help to understand the topic of the video: the problems within the two main political parties. Even if it true that they are an US vassal, it is not relevant.
It s not "politics" it is ultra capitalism. Huge wealth inequalities, low investments in public needs and erosion of salaries ended bringing south korea to it s doom. They have workers struggling to make a living, not able to afford children and thus the country is slowly dying of a mix of nepotism and boomerism.
Just looking at the lengthy articles written in Korean in the comments below shows that the political conflict in Korea is very serious. Someone may say the more advanced countries than korea are more politically conflicted than Korea, but I don't think the people of that country will hate their country beyond the level of dislike due to political conflict like Korea. And I think this hatred of the country caused by politics prevents the growth of the country's economy and politics. Representatively, politicians they support pretend not to know any wrongdoing, rather defend and criticize forces that support opposing politicians, and believe that these power struggles have evolved beyond power struggles into generational conflicts and gender conflicts, and that these gender conflicts have also affected fertility rates. As a patriot who loves the country, I wish the country well through difficult times.
I am native Korean and i was born and raised here. In fact, most wealthy previleged power-holding classes in Korea(both economically and politically) are so called right wing. In most countries, left n right wings have different opinion on many things and they have debate about those, to make maximum profit for the country. In Korea so-called right wing party "People's Power" tends to speak for the wealthy people and so does current president Yoon, for example recently he did tax rate reduction on corporates and increased public transportation, electricity fees. Problem is, the media is also corrupt and is sending out all the friendly news about the government. As result normal peoples lives here in Korea are getting harder and birth rate is going down every year. Ironically support rate of Yoon in poverty class is higher because of brainwashing contents by media.
I am a native Korean also. Despite what the replies to this comment say, this is true. There is a group of wealth driven politics in Korea mainly in the conservative party. Many politicians have interest in wealth, whichever party they are, but the current prosecutor driven administration is closely tied (in the back) to the Jaebols in SK (look at the high-profile economic criminals who were pardoned). South Korean prosecutors are fed public tax money in the name of "Special Use Funds" that is distributed by cash and can be used freely without specifying its use and without records. This is how many power holding prosecutors, the officials who claim to "Uphold Justice" in South Korea, are brought up within their organization and are naturally "accustomed" to this kind of corruption and money embezzlement, all in the name of "covert operations". It is ridiculous but knowing the law, they always claim that this is "legal" and there is nothing wrong with it and threatens the public that lawlessness will prevail if this is taken away from them. The current president, as a life long prosecutor, knows nothing about governing the country and is practically an i**** (please check and compare the international press conferences with candidate Yoon. He has no clear answer nor has any good plans for the economy, North and South relations, international relations, etc, etc, etc./have you heard how many times he flunked to become a prosecutor?) and the flocks who gather around him are there for a purpose and it's not a good one. The president hasn't had a public press conference for over a year now and he deliberately refuses to hold discussions with the majority holding opposition party. (but somehow always claims and advertises "communication with the people"???) This inability, helplessness and subtle signs and signals of corruption is what is deteriorating South Korea. The real Korean patriots and people with actual skills, knowledge, wisdom would never bother to work in such an inept administration and this is sadly why Korea will head down until a good administration is set in place.
@@eruno_ According to the OECD, South Korea has a gini coefficient of 0.331 which is relatively high for the organisation, but still equal to other members like Italy (0.331) and Spain (0.329) and even lower than that of other notable members like the United Kingdom (0.355) and the United States (0.375). And even then we have to remember that that's among OECD members, if one wants to look at what high inequality looks like one has to gaze at South America: (according to the FRED) Uruguay (0.408), Peru (0.402), Argentina (0.42), Chile (0.449), Brazil (0.529), etc. Then there is the world leader: South Africa, which had a gini index of 0.64 in 2014, that's what staggering inequality is. (I ignored that the index and the coefficient aren't the same for the sake of simplicity) (the gini index for the Central African Republic is 0.43, according to the FRED)
@@sadasasdas8467 it depends what definition of "inequality" one uses. It is pretty well known fact that in South Korea massive amount of capital is concentrated in the hands of the few - chaebol families who wield significant amount of influence over the political system.
I find South Korea very interesting because of it's extremely low birth rate. Based on current figures the population will half in 72 years. That's absolutely unprecedented, they would overtake Japan. Presently they are very reluctant to admit immigrants as well which will compound this issue.
They are better off with a small population. Once the large generation of older people passes away there will be a smaller population which will be more sustainable.
@@ivandinsmore6217the issue is not necessarily about a large or small population as many people claim. It's about the balance between different age groups. +65s generally don't work and depend on the working age group in one form or another, whether it be taxes that fund their pension or their own children helping out directly. The +65 cohort's proportion of the population will rapidly rise in a low fertility environment while the working age proportion drops. This is very unsustainable and could cripple the country, exacerbating future birthrates into a deadly spiral.
People talk about bad politics. Every country we see has bad politics. I wish people would wake up and realize this isn’t bad politics is just politics. It really doesn’t get better than this lol.
As a Korean-American, Korean politics seem so interesting. I’m not well-versed enough to make any educated statement, but based on what I see on the news, there is *always* something happening over there.
"Here I am in December 2024, just after a brief Martial Law, and this documentary from a year ago feels like it was made last week. Time's been doing some weird things!"
As a south korean and a graduate with bachelor on politics, this video is surprisingly on point. I have been tuning in through TLDR EU or UK for the most time but sometimes I felt this channel's explanation on geopolitical structure or phenomena was not accurate enough (e.g. France). But this video accurately depicts my country's political and economical problem very well and concisely. SK is somewhat like "A country similar to Japan and idolizes US". We don't have one party system like Japan but we have two party system like US. So that brings out the economic problems of JP and political problems of US to SK. SO... messed up right now. IDK if there will be any structural change in near future.
@@canelo1728 I think there are many places to get a job right away. But everyone wants to go to a good job with a high academic background. They don't want to do hard work. So the employment rate is low. As of 2023, the average monthly salary of office workers is 2477$; large companies are 4187$; and small and medium-sized companies are 1978$
@@canelo1728 Job finding is not hard but unemployment rating proves that provided jobs are not appealing enough for college grads.... Yes, there are economic reasons, cost of living in Seoul with non corporate worker salary is near impossible, but it seems it is due to the geopolitical situation of Korea. Koreans have extremely collective culture and they ended up centralizing almost everything in to the capital city. Therefore, less people want to work far from the main city(I mean Seoul most of the time) even with higher pay.
Park Chung-Hee was a literal fascist, what kind of apologism was that? The normalization of fascism is happening globally and because of our history us Europeans should know better.
Contrary to popular belief, the future favours the North. 'The future belongs to those who show up' The South is already dying off, literally, and the pace is accelerating every year. The North, with the highest birth rates in all of East Asia, will continue to grow for years to come. Population parity is all but inevitable now, and with a much younger population in the North (including a much larger population of military-age males). The North, for all its horrors, is basically stable. The South is anything but. (Shocking thought: Stable because of its horrors?)
I do wonder what would be considered the gold standard for democracy. I’d probably say the EU, not because they are the best democratic institution in the world, but because they inspire countries in the region to democratize in order to partake in their economy.
Switzerland is a close one, but their model of "closer to direct democracy" is very much for a small country with a population that's willing to vote on policies every few months.
@@chinguunerdenebadrakh7022i would disagree because even for thier own small population this system has shown its shortcoming despite a huge majorities support gay marriage and adoption and need to increase government power to monitor financial institutions upgrades to medical policies are all issues that show just how slow and hampering this system is
Koreans already knew that Yoon Suk Yeol was incompetent, but elected him president. They made these risky choices for tax cuts such as corporate tax, comprehensive real estate tax, and acquisition tax, which eventually led to a shortage of about $40 billion in taxes this year, so the Korean economy is sinking.
The leader of major party has now been investigated over alleged payments to North Korea and corruption scandals of real estate development during his time. This is not just political issue but critical issue of S.Korea's security and future.
As the United States accepted China's accession to the WTO, Korea, like the United States, experienced economic growth through manufacturing exports to China. However, the United States began to put pressure on trade with Korea and China, and Yoon Seok-yeol did as the United States said... As the economy collapsed, the People Power Party's approval rating naturally fell. Korea has the duality of exporting to and relying on the Chinese and American economies, but at the same time hating China. Because the United States is the world's bank and reserve currency country, it can stimulate the economy by passing on rising prices to other countries, but the problem is that this is not the case in Korea. President Seok-yeol Yoon succeeded in taking power thanks to the elderly, Daegu residents, and anti-feminist policies. It is certain that the economic situation will become more bleak and the birth rate will reach the 0.5 level. I am convinced that this country has a bleak future.
@@289CHJLman of wisdom👍 I rly agree. only those who have shitten in their heads mock and blame president Yoon not blaming Moon Jae In who made this whole shits
As the rapid growth slows down, all the money went to the real estate. The property price went up 14 times faster than income growth, which made it impossible to buy a house with just normal salaries. It became a blackhole of Korean economy. All the investments went to real estate, instead of going into industries that actually creates jobs and revenues. Since the nature of real estate is very inhereditary, cartels started to form. People not only inherent their houses, but also their jobs and networks. Also, higher and better education systems started to form around rich neighborhoods. This made climbing up the status ladder extremely harder for younger generations. It’s crazy, because those rich neighborhoods(such as Gangnam) were used to be just farmlands in about half century ago. Now, it’s filled with skyscrapers. The problem is that there are so many more votes in baby boomers than younger generations. Most of them are rich and supports for the political party that helps them to be richer. Also some of their well-off descendants are viewed as smart and successful role models to other young people, when actually they were just much luckier than others. And they are influencing the others to vote for the right wing, which favors cooperates and riches. Since president Yoon took the regime 1.5 years ago, he lowered cooperate tax by 3%, and lowering real estate transfer fee. There are so many other dirty tricks that benefits rich people, but most people don’t know. Who would want to have a baby in a country like this?
I feel like South Korea is heading into a huge crisis. Government oversight of culture, vast surveillance programs, and unfair preferential treatment to chaebols, and concentration of wealth towards "business families" Meanwhile regular Koreans are living in goshiwons and dealing with a vast housing inequality crisis... I've noticed this on Korean culture too- a lot of things they 'stand for' don't go far in changing Korean society- like gender equality, empowerment of women, etc. In reality Korea is a super patriarchal society still that is very dangerous for women in terms of sexual assault and harassment. Korea's birthrate is low- and gender relations don't allow the grievances of women to be solved. Increasing social control of society. Consolidation of wealth. Tiny 1 bedroom goshiwons for the vast majority of Koreans. Kpop, Kdramas, and cultural exportation can only go so far in changing your country's "image" until _real_ change is needed!
I'm currently living in South Korea. It is inaccurate to say that the average Korean lives in a goshiwon. While it is true that housing prices in Korea are expensive compared to other countries, people living in goshiwon are mainly the poor in Korea.
If you actually look at the facts though.. All your claims are false lmao.. Majority of people do not live in 1 bedroom goshiwons and sexual assault per capita is pretty low.. I think you are projecting your opinions and presenting as if its a fact..
While it is true that there is gender inequality in South Korea, this is an issue faced by the majority of Northeast Asian countries. Also, South Korea's sex crime rate is significantly low compare to developed countries such as UK.
You forgot to mention that adoption in the mid 1970's is what jump started their economy on large scale due to several hundred thousand adoptions. It's still a major part of their economy. Fact.
Now SK Yoon Seok-yeol government also said that Korea is no longer a free market economy. Even after two years, it is the only country in the world that still taxes commercial business facilities as housing.😂
There is no ideal political system but as a South Korean I think the American style duopoly parliament system is at the breaking point. I get so surprised when I read political news of the US. Nowadays, it seems so much similar to South Korea's politics. No constructive debates over policies. Just hates and sues towards the opposite party, meaningless propagandas everytime. Meanwhile the ordinary people are suffering.
Y’all didn’t see anything until you see infighting politicians flipping chairs and Jiu-Jitsu in the parliament, America. We look forward to your first baby steps ❤
1 term, 5 years is just ridiculous. No party or politician can create miracles with that short amount of time. The Westminster system is way better at boosting social and economic stability.
i hope this video have korea subtitle. Then many korean people may see this goood video. and as a korean this video spply me foraign's perspective thank you guy
Man this aged well.
This is called foreshadowing..
Yes.
And now he just survived an impeachment attempt
"The people have grown dissatisfied with the major parties" applies to just about every country on earth right now.
I'm from Spain. I want the major parties back. I wish the major parties would team up against fascists, communists, and catalan/basque nazis who are turning our country upside down.
@@DudeWatIsThis the fact htta you think catalans are nazis tells me everything i need to know about you. they are leftists and they deserve their independence. fascists have always been from spain, and catalans have always paid the price
"the people have grown dissatisfied with everything, everyone, all the time" is unfortunately what it feels like sometimes
@@DudeWatIsThis Do you think Catalan should have a referendum that decide how those people want to be governed themselves? What's the difference between {Hong Kong, Tibet, and Taiwan, not wanting to be governed by China} and {Catalan not wanting to be governed by Spain}? I'm not very familiar with the topic, by the way.
Not really
And here we are after South Korea experienced a martial law for several hours.
Glad this got better!
That didn’t really age well now did it? Even when he removed it, still ain’t good rn
haha
@@SohamAnand-dp8her/woosh
As an American, whose government is also a duopoly between two ineffective parties, I sympathize with the South Koreans.
Every developed nation government is like that unfortunately. The US, UK, Canada, etc.
Americans trying not to make everything about themselves any% speedrun (gone wrong)
@@muhammadmustafa2946 Nah man, UK has like 5 political parties at minimum in the congress. There are 2 which are the big ones, but the small ones can be swifting parties when u need to pass certain laws :)
The fact that americans think their political system is the usual one in the developed countries is wild. Even more when it's one of the most fucked up electoral systems and we laugh about it a lot in Europe...
@@muhammadmustafa2946Ahhh no?
In my opinion, south korean democracy is like having legal coup every 5 years. You are basically king for 5 years with no resistance, no check in power from other branches, then you are sacked aftherward as you leave the office. Literally, there were more former presidents who were either accused of crimes, or served times in the prison than the one who weren't.
They have weak parliment, subordinate juridical branch under the all powerful excutive branch that change every 5 years (but the catch is you only get 1 term). So every 5 years everything flips and changes as the government and their policies changes. So there is no long term consistency in korean government, and their policies. This inconsistency makes them somewhat struggle in the fields that require long term commitment, consistent policies, and the stability, like for example, long term investments and foreign deplomacy. Korea has sour relationship with all of her neighbors, as korea don't really commit to her foreign policies. But to be fair, having japan, china, north korea, russia, and america (base) as your neighbors isn't easy.
Mean while japan is like opposite of korea. They have weak executive power, and way too powerful parliment, that been under control of LDP ever since it's inception. Many people know that china is the one party system, but not many people know that japan is very similar to china, the fact that they been under one party rule for very long time. Yes, there were several times where LDP were briefly out of power, so japan does have democracy, and all the member of parliments are democratically elected, so they are technically democratic. However if you ask me if their democracy is actually working, I would say no.
Since they have the government that never changes, they have very consistent, and stable policies, but the problem is that they rarely changes, even the outdated policies.
Saying this, I don't think south korea will stagnate in japanese fashion, where they slowly fall down to recession, but rather it's going to be more dynamic and chaotic, where they will either make it or break it.
Agreed on all counts. Japan has what is called a "dominant party system" just like most individual states in the US. It's better than a true one-party system because the Party can't get away with as much press censorship and such things, but it does have the problems you described. One interesting thing about Japan's system, is that the LDP has been in power so long, that the opposition party just doesn't have any governing experience (which is why they were voted out after only one term the last time they were in power. I do kind of wonder if that would change if the local and regional governments were more autonomous, like in federations and devolved governments.
as a korean, i agree
Couldn't find any nitpicks to object. Bravo.
Wow. All very solid points, and great acumen. I’m Korean and I’m kinda surprised to see someone with such acute understanding of the two countrys
Elections are legal civil wars in every democratic country
SK, the US and to an extent the UK is why I've come to believe that two-party systems cannot properly work. You end up picking between two bad choices. Many different parties elected via ranked choice voting forced to cooperate as coalitions is the safest way to ensure that the will of the majority of people is actually properly represented
The emphasis needs to be on changing the rules of voting to encourage more parties with more representative wins. Going "just vote third party" is always going to be useless if the voting rules heavily favor two parties, like they do in the USA.
In the Netherlands the CDA which for decades was the largest party in the country has pretty much dissolved. It's something that can happen in a multi-party state where obsolete parties just lose seats election on election and once it's clear the party is done it just dissolves and it's members usually go to other parties.
The only good one is Australia
@@secretname4190 Oh, absolutely. We took on the neo-liberalism more than almost any country in Europe and we are really paying for it now with how much we hollowed out our government.
@@secretname4190While we do have some (pretty big) problems, I look forward to the next elections and I'm sure things will get better again. That's the beauty of a system with many parties, they're all falling over one another trying to win your vote. Rightwing parties will just adapt left wing policy because otherwise the other slightly less rightwing party might and steal your votes and vice versa.
I’ve been getting slowly interested in learning modern Korean politics. There’s very little videos about it unless they’re from Korea so this video is very appreciated.
I've been doing the same thing, but with Japanese politics. Similarly, like you said with coverage of Korean politics, it's rare to find English videos/articles covering Asian politics.
@@jayklink851hey man. I've actually been doing the same recently. I've found a few good sources.
If you get a cookie deleting extension on chromium based browsers you can read infinite Japan Times articles for free. This is great for up-to-date news yet you've probably heard of it already.
There is also a channel called Langley Esquire. It stopped uploading a while ago yet I find their 101 series very enlightening.
They also have a "Deep Dive" podcast which releases weekly that looks into some underreported current event.
Don't forget the "New books podcast" which has a Japanese Studies version.
Also don't forget books! There is a huge Oxford Handbook on Japanese politics. There is a Routelege one (I believe it's routelege) on foreign policy. There are also more specialist texts to read about which are too numerous to even begin to name.
Some lecture videos by Dr. David Field at the University of Wisconsin might be helpful for you. His area is limited to Rhee Syngman's political life in the early 20th century, but gives a good insight into the general nature of South Korean politics for, in particular, American audience.
Look at the 4b movement.
put it simply, SK conservative party is for pro-america, pro-japan on the other hand SK democratic party is for pro-china, pro-north korea. This is no debating matter.
Wow. I thought this was made on 12/3/2024 until 2/3 into the video
As a middle-aged Korean, this is a big concern which I hope we can find a way to bring things back on track, especially for the children. I agree that politics is the biggest threat to South Korea. To be fair, this is a problem not only of South Korea, but also of many other countries as well.
In South Korea, the dynamic history made the social characteristics extremely complicated. So many things happened, especially along the rapid modernization of the society. I believe one of the major problems which Koreans are dealing with everyday is the conflict among generations.
I think the Korean society is composed of five distinct generations. First, there are people who were born before the liberation. For them, Japan still is the biggest threat. Second, there are people who experienced the Korean War. For them, socialist countries, such as North Korea and China, still are the biggest threat. Third, there are people who experienced the rapid economic growth in 70-80s. For them, people who collapsed the strong leadership are the biggest threat. Fourth, there are people who collapsed the dictatorship then. For them, people who have nostalgia for the high-growth dictatorship period are the biggest threat. Fifth, there are people who experienced the Asian economic crisis in 90s. For them, third and fourth groups are the biggest threat, keeping the country from moving anywhere. Fifth, there are people who were born after the Asian economic crisis. They don’t care much as they don’t have much expectation.
I do not think conflicts are bad. People have different thoughts out of different experiences. They just need to be addressed properly and resolved fairly. In that sense, I think conflicts are the basis of politics, as politicians are supposed to resolve them. However, they have not. Each has focused only on the interests of its supporting group.
However, I am still positive that we will eventually find out a way to bring things back on track. Not through politicians though. People in South Korea have repetitive experiences and resultant expertise to clean up the mess made by politicians, throughout the 5,000-year history.
좋아요. 멋진 분석입니다
would love more videos on Korean, Japanese and Taiwanese politics
Corporatism , Corporatism, and more Corporatism
And all have pretty bad Demographics.
@@Fire-ci4seI cannot say it’s false, especially Foxconn’s former CEO Terry Gou (Guo Tai-Ming) is running for president of Taiwan, it’s crazy how things have happened this year.
@Skyjy10 Not just that, the government's bend over backwards to help the oligarchs . Taiwan was having severe drought with farmers struggling, but the government was subsidising preferential water for TSMC .
@@mam0lechinookclan607where they have incredible homogeneity that's wonderful wish Europe had that it would keep cohesion higher but birth rates.
Who's here after that Martial Law fiasco?
I've lived in Korea for 10 years and I've always felt Korean overreact to any bid of bad news. I feel the same way about this political "crisis." Having opposition parties who disagree with each other is not a crisis, and happens regularly in every other democracy in the world, and Korean society is hardly crumbling -- everything is humming along as it always has. Not perfect, sure, but nothing is. The elevation of this to "crisis" has me worrying that Koreans are going to go along the path of other democracies where right-wing politicians are openly flirting with getting rid of democracy all-together. Democracy is a terrible system -- and yet much better than the alternatives. We really need to remember that.
I think that the biggest flaw of most democracies are that it's representative democracies instead of direct democracies
just because you don't see the cracks today doesn't mean they wont have consequences tomorrow
I agree with the sentiment that the sensationalization of today's problems may lead to a surge of far-right ideals, but to combat that we need to acknowledge the crisis, not downplay it.
Sure, the society looks as if it's flowing well on the surface, but relieving oneself because of that is both complicit and short-sighted.
@@Jackie_burnp If you know anything about South Korea, their definition of left-wing and right-wing is far different compared to the U.S.
@@roallposselt4527the ancient Greek city states had direct democracy. Didnt work out so great for them. People dont always make the most rational choices and tend to fall to propaganda fairly easily
You forget to tell that Park Chung Hee didn't get out of power peacefully but got killed by KCIA, his own secret police.
Bad politics is ruining every country rn.
This I can agree on. It's ruining the U.S., it's ruining the UK, South Korea, Canada, France, Germany, South Africa, Argentina, and many others. With all those political issues, you'd think the PRC would be promoting their style of Communism as a way of gaining soft power, or promoting more military coups.
@@valentinfontanger4962 I got more where that came from!
Indeed. We need a way or system to get better leaders into power, who are commited to the people and not themselves.
I do think the mass use of social media has something to do with that.
Politics in democracies weren't great before mass social media, but mass social media gave powerful interests even more tools that bypass rational thought to manipulate the public. Across countries the boomer generation seems absolutely unable to resist the combined power of propaganda news and a social media bubble, which makes it really hard to for any meaningful consensus to occur.
cold take, but true
seems like they just have to broaden the demoncratic options. The Eropean democratic system with multiple fractions is better than the american dual-democatic system
But there should also be a consensus in the public at large and institutions that work (economists often pointing to institutions as the best place to start for sustainable economic development).
Bulgaria has a multi party system and their politics is shit, collpasing every so often. Italy has had a notorious political history for being so unstable (tho the current gov seems to be doing a bit better).
Spain, Germany and France currently have far right parties as 2nd or 3rd biggest polling parties.
US doesnt forbid more than two parties. it just happens like that.
"demoncratic options" lol
@@rizkyadiyanto7922 The US party system is hihgly influenced by electoral system, ballot access, cost, media access etc. Voter behaviour also matters. They don't forbid more than 2 parties but the lift is quite high for them to win at higher levels. There are 2 in the US senate but one basically takes out one party by winning their primary. They also caucus with one of the 2 parties anyway. Only 1 of them really runs in a 3 way race and it is in a small state where the voters are more adventurous which is not typical of most states.
UK and CAN also are 2 party plus systems where 3rd parties win seats but are usually irrelevant at the national level due to the first past the post single member district system.
AUS has 2 chambers of the legislature. The upper chamber uses multi member districts and ranked voting. That has broken their duopoly. Lower chamber uses just ranked voting in single member districts and while 3rd parties do win seats, it is largely still a 2 party plus system.
South Korea uses parallel voting, some seats are single winner first past the post but also has 15.6% of seats elected by party list. It is similar to Germany except the list seats are far fewer (in Germany the list seats are half). In Germany the list seats are distributed taking into account the proportionality of the constituency seats. So if a big party has more seats than they should have they won't get many list seats.
South Korea's list seats didn't care about proportionality of the constituency seats. They changed them so 30 out of 47 of the list seats now do operate like Germany's and take into account proportionality. It was tinkering to try to arrest the distortion of first past the post constituency seats. However, the 2 main parties just set up satellite parties so they get the full number of seats from the list vote. So it's all pointless and defacto still allows 2 dominant parties with small satellite parties to render the proportional part of the vote toothless.
I mean it's just slightly better than say the UK and Canada and USA using just first the past single member districts. To get a european style multi party system requires more proportional seats, multi member districts and voters to vote for actual 3rd parties. It's rare and difficult to get winners in the current system to make signficant reform to the system.
You can make a whole channel about "how bad politics is ruining [insert country here]", to be honest :P
endless content glitch
Yep. 😔 Even Switzerland, Norway or Singapore.
Looks like the Anglosphere isn't the only one suffering from two stagnant parties
It's every single country that uses plurality voting/first past the post/single seat constituencies. It's a system that garutnees there are only 2 parties, regardless of the people's desires, demographics, opinions, etc
The issue is stupid voters continuing to vote for the same parties. In the uk it was common up north to vote labour for like 30 years uncritically.
@@noname-wo9yy It is not. There are only 2 options in the UK's first past the post system. Voting for a third party is wasting your vote. The solution is to adapt literally any of the systems that other European countries use
@potato_nugget you can argue proportional representation is also wasting your vote as the major parties are held hostage by the smaller ones needed to make up the coalition. The threshold for change in a two party system is higher that's all. Don't blame the system, blame the people who don't vote critically or at all.
@@noname-wo9yy That is proven to be untrue and is only ever said by big parties who benefit from "coalition" being a dirty word.
Who's here after Yoon declared martial law?
A military leader who launched a coup - “a bit of an autocrat” 😄
Classic British understatement.
@@bongatumtumnah, just strategic western propaganda.
Yoon Seok-Yeol came to power on the back of a anti-feminist and justice focused campaign. He took the resentment some on the right had against recent social campaigns and turned it to his gain, something being done across the world currently. However, he's been beset by issues from day one and there are weekly protests in Seoul over him. One of the big things after the Itaewon crush was how there were hardly any police officers in the area of what was known to be the biggest event of the year, when there had been plenty deployed earlier that day to deal with anti-Yoon protesters...
On top of that, young people have a general apathy to politics in Korea. There was a popular saying called "Hell Choseon" or Korean hell, which was a funny joke to most Koreans about the state of their country and job prospects. People get into so much debt here trying to fit in and look like they're living a good life, even for small purchases, or what some call shibal biyong, or fuck it expense. In their mind, what's the point in saving when you'll never afford an apartment to buy anyways?
I love Korea, I'm so proud to live here, but there's a massive polarisation in their society now. It wasn't caused by Yoon, but it's been highlighted and made massively worse by him. Open corruption and over reliance with chaebols (particularly with Samsung, which is too big to fail for Korea), pardoning of former presidents and top officials over charges, the system is rotten like many other countries and needs to change, or else their economic and political woes will only get worse....
He also received the highest # of female votes in their party history too..
Media narratives =/= facts
Nah, bro, He came to power because the former DPK government nominated him to chief prosecutor expecting him to be their puppet, but he actually did his job right and prosecuted corrupt people on the DPK side. This pissed off the DPK so they hauled his ass on national television to shame him and fire him. This turned him into a symbol for equal justice and got him elected. Don't gaslight people, my dude. Had the DPK left him alone, he'd still be a lawyer. They made him President by going after him.
aside of the Itaewon unintended stampede, East Asian politics are at best something that most youths didn't bat an eye on. Unlike in the Western world where the youth's voice can bring a huge impact, the Eastern World... eh, it barely makes it into the government's ears... unless there's a huge mobilization.
I would say they're apathetic to politics, and thinking that it would be the best for the "experts" to deal with it. Same goes with the Japanese, giving on how little the Japanese youth is meddling with politics
you hit the nail on the head, good summary of korean politics really
Yup. Forget half the population, pander to misogynists in your politics, then wonder why less women are wanting to having kids or form families. It's far more than economics although that is a factor, there's a movement of south Korean women refusing to date and aren't okay with how things are.
As a political science student in South Korea i found this very interesting!!
5:03 The PPP has only been around for a few years. South Korea has had a bunch of parties come and the PPP emerged after the merger of multiple conservative parties
I was going to say it weirdly kind of matches the political fiasco of a country like the Czech Republic in a weird way until I realized you could also apply it to a lot of other countries
Czech here, I confirm, Czech politics are as fucked as anywhere else. Complete shitfest.
The political Fizo
What about him@@millevenon5853
South Korean DPK party is basically the Communist party. Korea would’ve been at a huge crisis if they won last election. Both parties corrupt but picking the lesser of the two evils kind of deal haha
Korea has two parties. One is extremely bad the other is rather good. Korea has been progressed under good one. So 2 steps forward and 1 step backward per 5 years.
As Korean in late 20s, I feel we're quite fucked up.
nah you guys will be fine, if you compare it to Europe, you guys got plenty of leeway lol
@nxtlvlnlkr5312 It seems everyone feels they're the most doomed, lol. I'm currently working in US and my colleagues also say they are the worst. Also, friends in Japan and France are saying they are the worst. In my opinion(if it means anything)I think Korea is in the worst state, though.
0.1 birth rate soon or worse negative birth rate
Basically all youth on the earth are quite messed up for the same reason, unless something substantially changed which could allow fair distribution of wealth. Unfortunately the top 1% would never allow this to happen.
Politics is messy everywhere, not a Korea specific problem.
now martial law is declared 😂
As a South Korean, I should mention that this video omits a vast amount of political events between 1987 and 2021.
As a South Korean, I still think this video is on point and very well summarized.
@@DeepNightHour 국민의 힘 계보의 정당이 1988년 직후부터 규모 2위의 정당이었던것 처럼 묘사하는게 사실과 부합한다고 보십니까?
10분짜리 비디오에 너무 많은 역사적 뉘앙스를 기대하시는게 아닌가 싶네요
@@DeepNightHour 그냥 단순한 축약이라기보다는 정보의 왜곡이 발생하는 수준이라 문제가 되는 것입니다. 애초에 10분짜리 영상을 만들 만큼 주제에 대한 분석을 하지 못했거나 10분짜리 영상으로 만들 주제가 아닌 내용이라고 봅니다.
as another South Korean, I think this video is not meant to be 40 minutes long or something. It's TLDR after all :)
anyone here after martial law
📌It's because social media encourages binary thinking and extreme polar opposites. It's either you're the best coach ever or the worst coach ever, there's no nuance. Politics has always been polarized but it has increased 100 times. Back then I never knew who my P.E. teacher voted for, but now I know who 300 of my friends voted for. I've seen more political discourse in the last 5 years than my entire adult life combined.
You're looking at the symptoms and completely missing the point.
The two major parties in about every corner of the Earth have pushed for the same centrist policy without rocking the boat for decades. The people, willing change, are growing frustrated, and therefore it is necessary to raise the stakes.
By giving a platform to the far-right elements, as the "outsiders" that catch the dissatisfied voter and as a punching bag for your average centre-left party, you generate more turnout, which sustains the flawed system of western democracy. Polarization is a natural consequence of the unending radicalisation of the right wing in this case, and because it is not ending, it encourages the your average centre-left party to abuse negative campaigns as the means of getting many votes while promising little, which naturally leads to dehumanization of opponents on both sides.
I find it ironic people today fear “AI” and yet persist in interpreting the world and formulating opinions in binary terms themselves.
This aged well
It’s interesting to see how people from outside Korea and inside Korea view Korean politics differently. I guess it’s natural, because language barriers get the strongest it can get when it comes to politics.
That being said, although this video could not cover the specific narratives employed by the two parties, it still nails how politically divided Korea is now, based on objective data.
I guess this is the approach I should take to understand other countries’ politics as well.
what do you mean by different views?
Tbf almost all other countries are politically divided.
What different views...? As South Korean, I can confirm that this video accurately portrays the current situation.
@@christine22798this video is overall very shorten and superficial
@@qmz1004 It's ten min video. You expect too much.
In depth anal needs two month history and eco political session
Really sorry to hear South Korea is somehow dealing with an even worse form of duopoly than the already ridiculously bad situation in the US or UK.
They're dealing with a US style duopoly because they have a copy of the US political system. The British system is still duopoly but half of the last four British and Canadian elections haven't been majority governments, at least.
I mean... they chose to be like that? Why be sorry for people who opted for a willful chaos? Lol
@@Anti-FreedomD.P.R.ofSouthKorea South Korea has a presidential system with the vast majority of its legislature being elected by first past the post. That's a combination that inevitably leads to duopoly whatever the people want because of the competition between the two institutions and Duverger's law inside both of them.
@@catmonarchist8920 Exactly. First past the post does it every time.
Are you running all of these sock puppet Russian government propaganda accounts?
Glad my country doesn’t have a duopoly with two parties focused on fighting each other instead of fixing our problems
My fellow American...
We are so f**ked.
True tho. Blessed.
But your country has a dictator which is destroying it by invading Ukraine.
Where are you from? North korea?😂
Well I see very cool star flag and an eagle on your profile
d^o^b
Crazy that this video gets recommended to me On the day that he declares martial law.
Anyone here after the martial law?
1:20 i would like to correct you on the fact that in the 1960s, south koreas GDP per capita was said to be under 200 dollars, 1000 is a very generous amount for a nation like korea at that time
How bad politics is ruining… everywhere?
bad economy = bad politics
@@babo_p2215 Not always the case
Loved this episode, extremely interesting and insightful.
i think we know why we are here
No matter what liberals may say, this is by design. South Korea is the republic of Samsung, LG and Hyundai, as well as close strategic military-ally close to China for the USA.
This rule of the country may not be challenged by socialists or other progressive movements, so it's best to disenfranchise people from politics.
Lol "disenfranchise" hilarious... South Korean presidential election turnout was 77%, far higher than the 66% of US's 2020 election and Japan's 55%. South Korean public is far more politically active and aware than what some people in this comment section might think. They were also responsible for mass protests which resulted in the former president being impeached. They then elected the relatively progressive opposition party's leader as their next president. Samsung's heir and ceo was also implicated with a scandal with that same president and was jailed.
You’re projecting American politics onto South Korea
@Chuckakhan I am German.
@beatlemania8273 disenfranchising people from politics and government doesn't have to stop them from voting, but lower their expectations and most importantly do not let your voters think there's an alternative to areas like economic organisation and foreign policy.
Germany also had 76% turnout in the last election and I would still same about Germany.
You do know that South Korea refuses too condemn China by abstaining on UN votes on Xinjiang and Hong Kong right. They didn’t even ban huawei and is part of the belt and road initiative.
I guess anywhere where politics goes in red and blue it will be a sad situation!
The European media seem to be more informed and have a better understanding of South Korea than they used to be. In the past, European media often quoted simple, easy narratives from noisy SKorean leftists bragging about how they won and that was a bunch of narcissistic bullshit. Politics here has always been messy and never easy.
It seems clear to me now. It's not just a Korean problem, it's a problem that everyone in the free world is suffering from, and we don't know what to do about it.
Arrogant westerners always see the world in their view only.
I can say "disgusting"
I would love a video on Ireland’s political system, given the complete lack of trust young people especially have in the government
Oh wow the algorithm is recommending me now that I heard the new of the coup
Sometimes I think that GDP per capita figures should be displayed with the median income level, as a form of contrast.
GDP per capita still shows general standard of loving. Median income is totally different.
TH-cam brought me back to here💀💀
A year later...
결국 이번 대통령도 또 또 또 말로가 불행할듯 (전혀 불쌍하진 않음, 창피할뿐)
이번이 이승만 다음으로 최악이다.
The corporate dynasties (Samsung, KT, Hyundai, etc.) haven't taken down a peg because the country is very reliant on its economy. It's almost like they're monarchies, but just a corporate version. Yoon's domestic policies have been a disaster, and to simply put it, a lot of SK politicians have always had dirty hands when I'm looking in from the outside.
Didn't some top guy from Damsung recently got sent to prison for something?
lol corporate dynasty is a funny word choice. you mean: Conglomerates😂
Yeah but they are taxing them hard(60percent inheritance tax if you inherit a company) and those corporates higher more than most of the other globally competing corporates....
That approval tracker only ever tracks 22 countries. Is there a better one somewhere with more countries?
it is because it tracks democracies, not that many of them in the world!
@@viciouswaffleThere are a lot more than 22.
@@teelo12000 of course there is.
Every single time you hear the story of a country reaching developed status, you'll also hear the expression "cheap labor". To be clear, these are generations of workers who were exploited in abject misery with hopes that wealth would eventually trickle down. Since the 1900s, foreign aid is also always mentioned. That's meritocracy for you.
Cheap labor doesn't necessarily mean exploitation although it's usually what's happening. But in case south Korea the exploitation still seems to be going on nowadays
the video also conveniently does not mention the fact that South Korea is basically an US vassal state
You are 100% right. Sadly, every country has encountered this though. It's like it's a needed stepping stone.
@@myxomat00sis
South Korea being friendly to US, doesn't make it a "vassal" do you think Japan or Germany is also "vassal"? Don't be ridiculous.
@@myxomat00sisit doesn't because it doesn't help to understand the topic of the video: the problems within the two main political parties. Even if it true that they are an US vassal, it is not relevant.
It s not "politics" it is ultra capitalism.
Huge wealth inequalities, low investments in public needs and erosion of salaries ended bringing south korea to it s doom.
They have workers struggling to make a living, not able to afford children and thus the country is slowly dying of a mix of nepotism and boomerism.
I will say ultra captialism that mixed with ultra collectivism along with centralizing almost EVERYTHING in one city.....
As an aged man , this news deserve high points .
Just looking at the lengthy articles written in Korean in the comments below shows that the political conflict in Korea is very serious. Someone may say the more advanced countries than korea are more politically conflicted than Korea, but I don't think the people of that country will hate their country beyond the level of dislike due to political conflict like Korea. And I think this hatred of the country caused by politics prevents the growth of the country's economy and politics. Representatively, politicians they support pretend not to know any wrongdoing, rather defend and criticize forces that support opposing politicians, and believe that these power struggles have evolved beyond power struggles into generational conflicts and gender conflicts, and that these gender conflicts have also affected fertility rates. As a patriot who loves the country, I wish the country well through difficult times.
Uneducated few mfs always cause the problems and Noise and it confuses the whole country
100% 동의합니다
I am native Korean and i was born and raised here. In fact, most wealthy previleged power-holding classes in Korea(both economically and politically) are so called right wing. In most countries, left n right wings have different opinion on many things and they have debate about those, to make maximum profit for the country. In Korea so-called right wing party "People's Power" tends to speak for the wealthy people and so does current president Yoon, for example recently he did tax rate reduction on corporates and increased public transportation, electricity fees. Problem is, the media is also corrupt and is sending out all the friendly news about the government. As result normal peoples lives here in Korea are getting harder and birth rate is going down every year. Ironically support rate of Yoon in poverty class is higher because of brainwashing contents by media.
You are telling exactly opposite
I am a native Korean also. Despite what the replies to this comment say, this is true. There is a group of wealth driven politics in Korea mainly in the conservative party. Many politicians have interest in wealth, whichever party they are, but the current prosecutor driven administration is closely tied (in the back) to the Jaebols in SK (look at the high-profile economic criminals who were pardoned). South Korean prosecutors are fed public tax money in the name of "Special Use Funds" that is distributed by cash and can be used freely without specifying its use and without records. This is how many power holding prosecutors, the officials who claim to "Uphold Justice" in South Korea, are brought up within their organization and are naturally "accustomed" to this kind of corruption and money embezzlement, all in the name of "covert operations". It is ridiculous but knowing the law, they always claim that this is "legal" and there is nothing wrong with it and threatens the public that lawlessness will prevail if this is taken away from them. The current president, as a life long prosecutor, knows nothing about governing the country and is practically an i**** (please check and compare the international press conferences with candidate Yoon. He has no clear answer nor has any good plans for the economy, North and South relations, international relations, etc, etc, etc./have you heard how many times he flunked to become a prosecutor?) and the flocks who gather around him are there for a purpose and it's not a good one. The president hasn't had a public press conference for over a year now and he deliberately refuses to hold discussions with the majority holding opposition party. (but somehow always claims and advertises "communication with the people"???) This inability, helplessness and subtle signs and signals of corruption is what is deteriorating South Korea. The real Korean patriots and people with actual skills, knowledge, wisdom would never bother to work in such an inept administration and this is sadly why Korea will head down until a good administration is set in place.
부끄럽게도 한국 보수정당이 수십년간 실행해온 정책들만 봐도 그정당의 성격이 보일텐데..
많은보수지지 저소득층은 그저 정당이 말하는것을 그대로 믿더라
집권하자마자 부자감세와 세금올리기부터 준비하는데 그걸또 포장하기 바쁘고 ㅡㅡ;;;
통과시키려는 법안들마다 본인들에게 불리한것들 뿐인데 그게 안보이는게 솔직히 놀랐다
일면 합리적인 선택이아니라 그저 원래지지했던걸 하는 맹목적으로 보였다
Neither of Korea's big political parties isn't future-oriented. They are anachronistic.
South Korean low fertility rate and inequality level is honestly staggering
South Korea is still among the more equal countries in the world, as measured by the gini index.
@@pascalausensi9592
I meant among more or less developed countries, but yes it's not Central African Republic level.
@@eruno_ According to the OECD, South Korea has a gini coefficient of 0.331 which is relatively high for the organisation, but still equal to other members like Italy (0.331) and Spain (0.329) and even lower than that of other notable members like the United Kingdom (0.355) and the United States (0.375).
And even then we have to remember that that's among OECD members, if one wants to look at what high inequality looks like one has to gaze at South America: (according to the FRED) Uruguay (0.408), Peru (0.402), Argentina (0.42), Chile (0.449), Brazil (0.529), etc. Then there is the world leader: South Africa, which had a gini index of 0.64 in 2014, that's what staggering inequality is.
(I ignored that the index and the coefficient aren't the same for the sake of simplicity)
(the gini index for the Central African Republic is 0.43, according to the FRED)
@@eruno_ Look at the gini index by countries. It's not "staggering", Korea does pretty good in this regard..
@@sadasasdas8467
it depends what definition of "inequality" one uses. It is pretty well known fact that in South Korea massive amount of capital is concentrated in the hands of the few - chaebol families who wield significant amount of influence over the political system.
5:08 Ah yes, my favorite party of all time, "PeePee Pee".
This is surprisingly an up-to-date info on S. Korea politics.
As a Korean-American, I hope more Koreans watch this video...
Lol as someone from the Philippines, korea’s politics still seem tame by comparison.
I find South Korea very interesting because of it's extremely low birth rate. Based on current figures the population will half in 72 years. That's absolutely unprecedented, they would overtake Japan.
Presently they are very reluctant to admit immigrants as well which will compound this issue.
They are better off with a small population. Once the large generation of older people passes away there will be a smaller population which will be more sustainable.
They have no good reason to give their country away to immigrants.
@@ivandinsmore6217the issue is not necessarily about a large or small population as many people claim. It's about the balance between different age groups.
+65s generally don't work and depend on the working age group in one form or another, whether it be taxes that fund their pension or their own children helping out directly. The +65 cohort's proportion of the population will rapidly rise in a low fertility environment while the working age proportion drops. This is very unsustainable and could cripple the country, exacerbating future birthrates into a deadly spiral.
I'm glad the birth rates are low. There's reasons
@@letgo4331 great analysis there
Politically, I think this is spoken only by one party's point of view
People talk about bad politics. Every country we see has bad politics. I wish people would wake up and realize this isn’t bad politics is just politics. It really doesn’t get better than this lol.
1:35 "Democracy" is a horrible term for how dictator changes the constitution multiple times to allow more terms
As a Korean-American, Korean politics seem so interesting. I’m not well-versed enough to make any educated statement, but based on what I see on the news, there is *always* something happening over there.
"There is always something happening over there." I'd be more concerned if nothing was happening in a country.
@@MichaelDavis-mk4me it's like boxing, if a referee is a big part of the match it's usually not for a good reason
One-sentence summary: nobody is happy and everybody is fighting over what another said.
나는 한국인이지만 모두 정치인들 모두가 썩어있는데 특성 당이나 인물을 지지하는 한국인들을 보면 신기함. 그냥 전부 부패한 족속들일뿐
ㅎㅎ that's right bro. We say "Six months of Korea can stage more affairs than 600years of Joseon Dynasty"
Your ancient country is a clown-land.
"Here I am in December 2024, just after a brief Martial Law, and this documentary from a year ago feels like it was made last week. Time's been doing some weird things!"
As a south korean and a graduate with bachelor on politics, this video is surprisingly on point. I have been tuning in through TLDR EU or UK for the most time but sometimes I felt this channel's explanation on geopolitical structure or phenomena was not accurate enough (e.g. France).
But this video accurately depicts my country's political and economical problem very well and concisely. SK is somewhat like "A country similar to Japan and idolizes US". We don't have one party system like Japan but we have two party system like US. So that brings out the economic problems of JP and political problems of US to SK. SO... messed up right now. IDK if there will be any structural change in near future.
Is it hard to find a job for graduates in south korea like he described in the video? And what is the average salary in south korea?
@@canelo1728 I think there are many places to get a job right away. But everyone wants to go to a good job with a high academic background. They don't want to do hard work. So the employment rate is low. As of 2023, the average monthly salary of office workers is 2477$; large companies are 4187$; and small and medium-sized companies are 1978$
@@canelo1728 Job finding is not hard but unemployment rating proves that provided jobs are not appealing enough for college grads.... Yes, there are economic reasons, cost of living in Seoul with non corporate worker salary is near impossible, but it seems it is due to the geopolitical situation of Korea. Koreans have extremely collective culture and they ended up centralizing almost everything in to the capital city. Therefore, less people want to work far from the main city(I mean Seoul most of the time) even with higher pay.
Any dictator, oligarch or monarch which kisses American boot is a good one 😂😂😂😂
Oh. I never expected this to be a full video material on this sister channel. A welcome surprise😅
Actually bad politics is killing every single country
Park Chung-Hee was a literal fascist, what kind of apologism was that? The normalization of fascism is happening globally and because of our history us Europeans should know better.
Thx for having interest in my country's terrible political system. The words need to be spread
국뽕들이 아무리 쉴드를 쳐도 저런 말도안되는 인간을 대통령으로 뽑는 국민들의 나라에 무슨 희망이 있겠는가. 대한민국의 전성기는 이제 끝이다
Everything's going wrong now. Especially , Economy is shrinking faster ever.
Koreans are hard working people.
"Dissatisfied with the 2 major political parties." Glad we don't have that here in the USA... >.>
Power corrupts. Doesn’t matter what country it is. It’s human nature. People tend to screw things up.
true. there might be few good people in any political party but majority of people will always be corrupt. that's human nature.
We should do away with political parties. Politicians should have to run for public office as individuals and not members of political parties.
Both North and South Korea are dystopian in different ways
I was searching for this comment. Now lets combine them and see what happens.
One is a 1984-esque dystopia, the other is a cyberpunk dystopia.
SK has issues but it is a very successful nation
But SK is better.
Contrary to popular belief, the future favours the North.
'The future belongs to those who show up'
The South is already dying off, literally, and the pace is accelerating every year.
The North, with the highest birth rates in all of East Asia, will continue to grow for years to come.
Population parity is all but inevitable now, and with a much younger population in the North (including a much larger population of military-age males).
The North, for all its horrors, is basically stable. The South is anything but.
(Shocking thought: Stable because of its horrors?)
Considering the socio-economic circumstance, it's no surprise Squid Game was made in South Korea.
I do wonder what would be considered the gold standard for democracy.
I’d probably say the EU, not because they are the best democratic institution in the world, but because they inspire countries in the region to democratize in order to partake in their economy.
Switzerland is a close one, but their model of "closer to direct democracy" is very much for a small country with a population that's willing to vote on policies every few months.
EU democratic😅😅😅😅😅😅😅
@@chinguunerdenebadrakh7022i would disagree because even for thier own small population this system has shown its shortcoming despite a huge majorities support gay marriage and adoption and need to increase government power to monitor financial institutions upgrades to medical policies are all issues that show just how slow and hampering this system is
Probably Switzerland which is run most like an democracy and where people vote on the actual laws.
@@ivandinsmore6217good job Ivan ve vill send you a toilet
I’m pretty sure most countries around the world are dissatisfied
Koreans already knew that Yoon Suk Yeol was incompetent, but elected him president. They made these risky choices for tax cuts such as corporate tax, comprehensive real estate tax, and acquisition tax, which eventually led to a shortage of about $40 billion in taxes this year, so the Korean economy is sinking.
7:13
I heard that editor PepeLaugh
Nice touch OMEGALUL
The leader of major party has now been investigated over alleged payments to North Korea and corruption scandals of real estate development during his time. This is not just political issue but critical issue of S.Korea's security and future.
Do not lie.
Do not deceive.
Do not break promise.
Do not steal.
As the United States accepted China's accession to the WTO, Korea, like the United States, experienced economic growth through manufacturing exports to China. However, the United States began to put pressure on trade with Korea and China, and Yoon Seok-yeol did as the United States said... As the economy collapsed, the People Power Party's approval rating naturally fell. Korea has the duality of exporting to and relying on the Chinese and American economies, but at the same time hating China.
Because the United States is the world's bank and reserve currency country, it can stimulate the economy by passing on rising prices to other countries, but the problem is that this is not the case in Korea.
President Seok-yeol Yoon succeeded in taking power thanks to the elderly, Daegu residents, and anti-feminist policies. It is certain that the economic situation will become more bleak and the birth rate will reach the 0.5 level. I am convinced that this country has a bleak future.
As a South Korean, it is just a complete bloody mess.
just be glad criminal thugs like Lee Jae-Myung didn't get elected as president.
@@289CHJLman of wisdom👍 I rly agree. only those who have shitten in their heads mock and blame president Yoon not blaming Moon Jae In who made this whole shits
전 살면서 박근혜보다 무능한 대통령은 한국에서 다신 나오지 않으리라 생각했는데 윤완용을 보면서 얼마나 안일하고 어리석은 생각이었는지 반성 중입니다. 😂
As the rapid growth slows down, all the money went to the real estate. The property price went up 14 times faster than income growth, which made it impossible to buy a house with just normal salaries. It became a blackhole of Korean economy. All the investments went to real estate, instead of going into industries that actually creates jobs and revenues.
Since the nature of real estate is very inhereditary, cartels started to form. People not only inherent their houses, but also their jobs and networks. Also, higher and better education systems started to form around rich neighborhoods. This made climbing up the status ladder extremely harder for younger generations. It’s crazy, because those rich neighborhoods(such as Gangnam) were used to be just farmlands in about half century ago. Now, it’s filled with skyscrapers.
The problem is that there are so many more votes in baby boomers than younger generations. Most of them are rich and supports for the political party that helps them to be richer. Also some of their well-off descendants are viewed as smart and successful role models to other young people, when actually they were just much luckier than others. And they are influencing the others to vote for the right wing, which favors cooperates and riches.
Since president Yoon took the regime 1.5 years ago, he lowered cooperate tax by 3%, and lowering real estate transfer fee. There are so many other dirty tricks that benefits rich people, but most people don’t know.
Who would want to have a baby in a country like this?
yupp thats why many of my family have left south korea already
I feel like South Korea is heading into a huge crisis. Government oversight of culture, vast surveillance programs, and unfair preferential treatment to chaebols, and concentration of wealth towards "business families"
Meanwhile regular Koreans are living in goshiwons and dealing with a vast housing inequality crisis...
I've noticed this on Korean culture too- a lot of things they 'stand for' don't go far in changing Korean society- like gender equality, empowerment of women, etc.
In reality Korea is a super patriarchal society still that is very dangerous for women in terms of sexual assault and harassment.
Korea's birthrate is low- and gender relations don't allow the grievances of women to be solved. Increasing social control of society. Consolidation of wealth. Tiny 1 bedroom goshiwons for the vast majority of Koreans.
Kpop, Kdramas, and cultural exportation can only go so far in changing your country's "image" until _real_ change is needed!
I'm currently living in South Korea. It is inaccurate to say that the average Korean lives in a goshiwon. While it is true that housing prices in Korea are expensive compared to other countries, people living in goshiwon are mainly the poor in Korea.
If you actually look at the facts though.. All your claims are false lmao..
Majority of people do not live in 1 bedroom goshiwons and sexual assault per capita is pretty low.. I think you are projecting your opinions and presenting as if its a fact..
The vast majority of average Koreans live in apartments.
@@liberaldemocrat1547 That person seems abit clueless...
While it is true that there is gender inequality in South Korea, this is an issue faced by the majority of Northeast Asian countries. Also, South Korea's sex crime rate is significantly low compare to developed countries such as UK.
You forgot to mention that adoption in the mid 1970's is what jump started their economy on large scale due to several hundred thousand adoptions. It's still a major part of their economy. Fact.
Now SK Yoon Seok-yeol government also said that Korea is no longer a free market economy.
Even after two years, it is the only country in the world that still taxes commercial business facilities as housing.😂
"It's always great to stay on top of things."
I guess so😆
There is no ideal political system but as a South Korean I think the American style duopoly parliament system is at the breaking point. I get so surprised when I read political news of the US. Nowadays, it seems so much similar to South Korea's politics. No constructive debates over policies. Just hates and sues towards the opposite party, meaningless propagandas everytime. Meanwhile the ordinary people are suffering.
용케 국회의원 인파이팅 사태까진 안 갔네요 그래도. 아니다, 크게 한 건 터지긴 했네.. 일방적이었지만..
Y’all didn’t see anything until you see infighting politicians flipping chairs and Jiu-Jitsu in the parliament, America. We look forward to your first baby steps ❤
South korea is sad story. North korea is a tragedy
관심을 가져주셔서 감사합니다😢
1 term, 5 years is just ridiculous. No party or politician can create miracles with that short amount of time. The Westminster system is way better at boosting social and economic stability.
좌파 우파 그딴 건 필요없고 부패가 들통났으면 반성하는 척이라도 보여야 하는 거 아니냐?
그게 정치임...
@@adsfdgfh그건 정치가아님!
i hope this video have korea subtitle. Then many korean people may see this goood video. and as a korean this video spply me foraign's perspective thank you guy