Saturday, April 11, 2015

Week 6 blog - "Government & Politics" / posted by So Jeong Yeon (연소정)


1. Introduction

 
In this week’s lecture, we learned about Government and Politics in sociological perspective. At first, we looked into some concepts about power. There are three concepts: Power, Authority, Legitimacy. And then we learned three sources of political legitimacy which Max Weber identified. There are tradition authority, rational-legal authority, charismatic authority. Lastly, we also learned about many types of democracy.
 
While I was taking classes I recalled knowledges what I knew already and compared them with what I got to know newly. On this blog post, I want to think deeply about questions which was related to what we learned and we debated on in class.
 

 

2. My opinion of the question

 
Q1. Is modern democracy really “the will of the people?”
 
I think modern democracy is the will of the people. In particular, I think this proposition applies clearly to Korea. We can find out that through the past history of democratic movements against the dictatorial(authoritarian) governments. For example, we can think of ‘the April 19 Student Uprising’ and ‘1980 Gwangju Democratization Movement.’ In other words, the fight against the dictatorship and Korean people’s efforts to build a true democracy is proof that modern democracy is really made by the will of the people.
South Korea has developed a vigorous democracy since mass protests 20 years ago ended decades of authoritarian rule. As a result of that, nowadays we participate in politics though many ways such as vote and running for election.
 
There can be the opposite argument that modern democracy is not the will of the people because nowadays the voting rate is quite low in election and political indifference is deepening. But that does not mean we can conclude that modern democracy is not reflect the will of the people. That is in a different category. Such phenomena are result from political corruption, vitalization of entertainment and pop culture. It can mean that politic decision does not represent idea of all people. That does not mean an absence of the people’s will. On the other hand, someone argue that modern democracy is unavoidable decision, not the will of the people. I saw such opinion in other student’s blog post. I think the inevitable flow to democracy is also led by people.
 
 
Q2. How would you like the government of the future to look and work ?
 
I think the government and politicians of the future must listen to the people’s voice. As I mentioned earlier, phenomena such as a poor turnout and political apathy are not just voters’ fault. We also should consider other factors such as political corruption or difficulty in participation procedure. Some people really want to be part of conversation. The government should listen their opinions and set up appropriate systems that enable people to take part in politics easily.
      
 
 

3. Conclusion

 


We need to continue to discuss, debate, ruminate on the topic about Government and Democracy. Many countries say no to authoritarianism and go for democracy in modern times. Korea became a democratic nation through the movement for democracy in the past. Then now we think carefully about how we will have real democracy.
 

About this week’s topic, I was also interested in legitimizing symbols. Governments make appeals to cultural traditions, religious beliefs, history and such through symbols. If I get the chance, I want to post essay next time about legitimizing symbols that Korea makes extensive use of.



 images from : http://www.dupont.co.kr/industries/government-and-public-sector.html

                        http://sejin90.tistory.com/347 

                        http://ecowatch.com/2012/12/26/restoring-democracy-fracking

 

1 comment:

  1. I agree with you. In the past, democracy is really the will of the people. I appeciate out ancestor. Because of their sacrifice, we were able to get a democracy. And I think we need more efforts to keep and develop this democracy.

    ReplyDelete