“It is not hard to become a member of the National Assembly. Without the need to graduate from a good university, just graduate from a high school, pass the bar exam, and then become a judge. It is not hard to become a judge. Just be ranked in the top 10 percent in the Judicial Research and Training Institute. After becoming a judge, get close to the leading members of the ruling party and win their nomination. And then visit the Central Election Management Committee (CEMC) with two hundred million won as a deposit,” sarcastically said a comedian Choi Hyo Jong on a TV gag show.
The ideal type of democracy creates the great feature of identicalness between the ruler and the ruled. It is an unobtainable dream to realize the ideal in the modern society, which is complex and massive. Instead, contemporary people believe that a representative system and elective democracy are the most similar and reasonable forms. As the comedian said, however, becoming the ruler is not an easy procedure. Although difficulty of taking part in the National Assembly was obvious from the beginning, the gap between the ruler and the ruled gets bigger and bigger as time goes by. In such a situation, sortition democracy rises up to the surface as an alternative.
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| ▲ Lee Ji Moon is explaining sortition democracyPhotographed by Choi Ji Won | ||
The Crisis of Korean Democracy
As mentioned, the distance between the ruler and the ruled is too great. Numerous representatives have been journalists, judges, lawyers, and professors. More than twothirds of the members of the National Assembly are graduates of so-called SKY (Seoul National University (SNU), Korea University (KU), and Yonsei University (YU)). Moreover, the entry barriers get higher and higher. Hence, ordinary people have never been able to dream of becoming a representative, except when they were so young that they did not know what the reality was.
Along with this problem, Korean democracy is excessively political-party based. Even if a member of a party has different opinions about certain topics, he or she has to toe the party line. They have to do so, because they have to win the next nomination from their parties. In addition, they also represent local constituencies, and this leads them to become “pothole” politicians. In other words, to get votes, people working at the National Assembly are busy trying to bring local projects to their electorate.
The most serious problem is that only two major parties have held power for a long time. This obstacle tends to hide the real and fundamental points about serious social issues. The Seoul local referendum regarding free meals in schools was a prime example. The conflict between the Democratic Party and the Grand National Party masked the real issue. The vote should have been focused on the free meal, itself. However, people who voted were denounced as supporters of the Grand National Party and those who did not were labeled as advocates of the Democratic Party.
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| ▲ Provided by OhmyNews Is elective democracy ideal? | ||
Many people believe the core of Athenian democracy is direct democracy. According to Lee Ji Moon (’87, Political Science and International Relations), a researcher of YU Institute of State Governance and an alumnus of KU, this is not a fact. The number of members of the Athenian ecclesia was limited to six thousand while Athenian citizens numbered about thirty thousand. What it means is that Athenian democracy was not literal direct democracy.
The real essence of Athenian democracy is sortition democracy. Today, everybody must sneer at a person who insists that people cast lots to determine important national positions such as the president, representatives, etc. In ancient Athens, it really happened. People who were selected through sortition could become judges or juries in people’s courts. In addition, those who were selected in a similar way performed administrative duties as magistrates for a year. In this situation, the ruler was equal to the ruled.
Aristotle said that a type of liberty is to govern and to be governed alternately and that rule and obedience in turn is a virtue of a citizen. In order to achieve it, some discussions about sortition democracy are necessary. Kim Sang Jun, a professor at Kyung Hee University, suggested temporary ecclesia. According to Kim, this system gave ordinary civilians the right to deliberate on public agendas. Oh Hyeon Cheol, a professor at Chonbuk National University proposed the permanent people’s assembly composed of five hundred citizens. Both professors agreed on the current problem of Korean democracy and advocated possible alternatives which can be operated through sortition. Moreover, they pointed out what matters is public discussion, not voting.
In Canada, the government of the Liberal Party started the Citizens’ Assembly on Electoral Reform. It was composed of 161 people who were selected at random from a pool of 1,000 people per electoral district. So as to guarantee a representative nature with regard to age, all, who were above 18 years of age, were categorized into five groups. Sure enough, gender was also considered. They went through three steps: a learning stage to study a variety of election systems, a hearing stage to collect other people’s opinions, and a deliberation stage to choose which election system should be recommended.
In Korea, there is a system where people can take part in a serious criminal trial as a part of a jury. They watch the trial and then choose whether to convict the suspect or to judge him or her innocent. If they find the accused guilty, the participants hold a debate regarding proper punishment. The Department of Justice reachs an impartial verdict, taking into account the jury’s judgment.
About Counterviews
Some objectors maintain that sortition democracy in which ordinary citizens participate, is impossible because topics regarding national serious issues need professional knowledge. According to a report by the Supreme Court, the verdicts of juries composed of ordinary civilians corresponded to those of judges by 90.6 percent. This indicates that there is no great difference between the common sense of the public and the professional knowledge of those in the filed of law.
Lee Ji Moon says, “In fact, do the candidates for the National Assembly have much information about social issues? They also have a similar quantity of information to that of the ordinary people. They could be smarter than other people. However, they are equal to the public if the issue is about school violence.” As Lee says, no one guarantees that the lawyers or professors which usually win their seats in the assembly are more conversant than the cleaning men or university students.
Sense of responsibility emerges as another problem. However, it is also just ignorance about the public. According to the aforementioned report, 95.1 percent of the juries were content with their performance of duties. 88.9 percent of them said they concentrated on the trials. In addition, there was just one dropout in the case of Citizens’ Assembly on Electoral Reform in Canada, despite the fact that the assembly lasted for a year. The average attendance rate of the Assembly consistently run at more than 95 percent. It proved that there exist more possibilities than dangers.
Where Does This Democracy Go?
Lee says, “To abolish electoral system just now is unrealistic. The Korean public has more capability to directly participate in the workings of the government than any other people. They just need a chance and are waiting for one, to show their abilities.” The more opportunities are given to the Korean people, the more dynamic discussions will take place. He adds, “Sortition Democracy is not a cureall but a means. It is the citizens’ responsibility to make this happen.” Sortition democracy provides citizens’ opportunities places for debates regarding society. It gives people chances to play a real basket ball game, instead of watching the game in the stands. It puts the ruled in the ruler’s shoes.
First of all, the current electoral systems should be changed on a small scale. The members of local councils can be selected through sortition. To expand citizens’ juries is another way. If voting, appointment, and sortition are used harmoniously, they will bring about good results.