Democracy's Path, Even When It Shakes

In 2017, South Korea removed President Park Geun-hye—the first impeachment in the nation’s history.

In 2025, it did the same to President Yoon Suk-yeol.

Twice now, the Korean public has toppled presidents it had freely elected.

Before anything else, remember: each president won office by a popular vote.

These two dramas raise a blunt question: Why must citizens drag into the streets to depose the very leaders they chose at the ballot box? The answer points past the failures of two individuals to deeper flaws in modern democracy and the limits of mass decision-making.

Is the people’s choice wise—or pre-programmed?

Democracy claims that power rests with ordinary voters. But does it?

Every election is warped by uneven information and built-in cognitive bias.

Walter Lippmann warned in Public Opinion (1922) that voters follow symbols and images living “in a world of illusions.” Modern campaign science only amplifies the danger: emotion, hostility, and demagoguery drown out policy and logic. Cass Sunstein (On Rumors, 2009) shows how, inside “filter bubbles,” lies spread faster than facts.

Why democracy wobbles

Politics is supposed to serve the common good, yet in practice that good is bent by the loudest voices and the deepest pockets. Policies sold as “for everyone” often breed broad frustration while a narrow group cashes in. Michael Young’s The Rise of the Meritocracy (1958) warned that meritocracy can end up defending a new aristocracy. Voter turnout may rise, but people feel less able to shape outcomes; “politics for politics’ sake” multiplies.

When entrenched interests and big media join forces, they can bend law, bureaucracy—even religion—and still claim democratic or legal legitimacy. Most people notice, yet stay silent until daily survival itself feels threatened; after all, livelihood usually lies under the influence of those same interests.

Elites, ignorance, and the elusive “wisdom of crowds”

James Surowiecki argued in The Wisdom of Crowds (2004) that a crowd is wise only when diversity, independence, and decentralization are intact. Strip those away and the crowd lapses into collective folly—fuel for a profitable media cycle. As political fatigue builds, citizens become easy targets for simple, anger-driven messages. That fatigue can even be engineered: stir up fights, blow up incidents, burn off public energy—then real crowd wisdom never forms.

Why the poor drift conservative

Thomas Piketty’s Capital and Ideology (2019) explores why economically vulnerable voters often back right-wing parties. The driver is not pocketbooks but identity, place, and cultural belonging. Wider gaps in education and income push people toward politicians who “speak their language,” offering blunt, sweeping promises instead of complex policy. They do think—often intensely—venting anger inside that manufactured fatigue, but the conversation circles within hometown networks and familiar stories.

Cultural capital and the politics of desire

As Marx noted, people make choices only within the conditions they inherit. Elites who have tasted power carefully design those conditions, staging conflicts and compromises inside them. The more media, schools, and economic structures reproduce low cultural capital, the more instant-gratification populism and escapist leaders thrive. Populism erodes public trust and speeds up polarization. A democracy “for all” can end up representing no one.

Rethinking democracy

Winston Churchill called democracy “the worst form of government—except for all the others.” Today we praise its ideals while ignoring its limits. Asking “Whom should we elect?” is easy; the harder task is facing these limits head-on:

Who uses pious slogans to dodge reality?

Who turns politics into a tool for private gain?

Who speaks mainly for entrenched privilege?

Who fuels division instead of offering inclusion and vision?

If we fail to confront the elite ambitions, popular blind spots, and systemic flaws hiding behind “choices for everyone,” we will keep repeating a democracy that promises happiness for all—yet keeps delivering disappointment for everyone.