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The January 6, 2021, assault on the US Capitol produced some extraordinary pictures. However for sheer narrative drama, look to the South Koreans.
At nighttime on December 3, 2024, former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol introduced — on reside TV — that he was imposing martial regulation. Over the following a number of hours, 1000’s of Korean protesters massed outdoors the nationwide parliament constructing whereas particular forces troops helicoptered onto the garden.
Almost 200 lawmakers barricaded themselves inside to unanimously vote down the martial regulation declaration. In one of the well-known pictures from the night time, opposition chief and now-President Lee Jae Myung leapt a fence to enter the legislature after police blocked the doorways.
Each the soar — and the vote — succeeded: Yoon was impeached, faraway from workplace and simply final week, sentenced to jail. One Korean knowledgeable described the decision as “a uncommon instance of democratic resilience” in an interview with the BBC.
South Korea’s political leaders deserve some credit score for that end result. Although the nation is deeply polarized, leaders in each Yoon’s occasion and the opposition mobilized rapidly to finish his tried riot.
However new analysis by Korean students additionally factors to a different, equally essential story: Extraordinary Korean residents noticed the authoritarian menace as so apparent and so pressing that they too mobilized in opposition to it.
Koreans extremely worth their younger democracy. The nation elected its first president of the fashionable period in 1987, after toppling a navy dictatorship. Since then, South Korea has cycled by progressive and conservative leaders — and endured repeated corruption scandals. Yoon, a relative political newcomer and former prosecutor common who helmed the corruption case in opposition to disgraced former President Park Geun-hye, rode a wave of anti-incumbent sentiment to the presidency in 2022.
As soon as in workplace, nonetheless, Yoon struggled to make a mark. He misplaced the 2024 midterms. Tormented by low approval scores and overtly nostalgic for South Korea’s prior dictatorship, Yoon grew more and more paranoid about Communist infiltration. When he declared martial regulation in December 2024, it was on the pretext of defending the nation from North Korean sympathizers and different “anti-state” forces.
However Korean residents largely (if not completely) rejected this narrative. The nation has an unusually lively tradition of protest, rooted within the profitable motion to overthrow the navy dictatorship. That historical past helps clarify why 1000’s mobilized inside minutes to contest Yoon’s declaration.
“The excessive stage of civic consciousness and voluntary participation was important in restoring democratic resilience,” professors Lee Jae-seung and Lee Dae-joong write in a 2025 paper extracting classes from the Korean disaster.
“Whereas a smaller variety of residents might need been simply overpowered by the navy, they exhibited no worry of the armed forces and as a substitute actively sought to confront them. Some demonstrated extraordinary braveness by bodily blocking the paths of armoured automobiles with their our bodies,” Lee and Lee proceed. With out them, the students conclude, Yoon could have arrested — and even probably executed — some lawmakers earlier than parliament might vote to override the martial regulation declaration.
In some ways, this episode challenges standard desirous about democratic resilience. Political scientists and democracy activists sometimes concentrate on structural components (improvement stage, polarization), institutional design (presidential versus parliamentary techniques), or uncooked energy politics (what number of seats the manager’s occasion controls) to clarify why authoritarians succeed or fail.
All this stuff matter — there’s no one-size-fits-all idea of democratic collapse — however how peculiar individuals perceive and reply to the menace issues, too. South Korea exhibits that when individuals are satisfied that there’s a menace to their political freedoms, they’ll go to extraordinary lengths to defend them.
The actionable recommendation right here is simple: Individuals with political affect and platforms have to work to make the authoritarian menace extra apparent to extra individuals. The survival of democracy could rely — to an extent not absolutely appreciated — on peculiar residents’ narratives and perceptions.
