Public servants can prevent authoritarian drift, but only if they get out of bed for their democracy.
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** Lessons From South Korea’s Six-Hour Dictatorship
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Public servants can prevent authoritarian drift, but only if they get out of bed for their democracy.
December 5, 2024
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This past Tuesday, South Koreans went to bed living in a democracy and woke up in a dictatorship.
Late that evening, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol surprised the world by declaring martial law. Arguing that the opposition Democratic Party consisted of subversive pro-North Korean forces, President Yoon subjected Korean media to censorship, banned political activity—including shuttering the National Assembly—and forbade mass gatherings. By dismantling the democratic scaffolding around him after being elected freely and fairly, Yoon engaged in what experts call a self-coup ([link removed]) .
In response to this decree, the institutions of South Korea sprang into action. The press and social media disseminated key information about constitutional stipulations around martial law. When they learned what had happened, South Korean citizens chose not to turn the lights off and go to bed. Instead, they courageously left their homes and went out to protest. Legislators from both the opposition and the president’s party, for their part, also ignored the order, converging on the National Assembly, climbing over fences to enter, skirmishing with the military, and ultimately voting to lift martial law, 190-0.
For nearly four decades, South Korea has consistently held free and fair democratic elections. But democracy wasn’t always the norm.
The country had a rough twentieth century, replete with invasion, occupation, war, several coups, and dictatorships that lasted much longer than Yoon’s abortive autocratic experiment. Despite 16 declarations of martial law ([link removed]) in the first thirty years after its founding, it then consolidated its democracy so successfully that there have been no invocations of military rule since 1980.
Until this week, that is.
Only a few hours after declaring martial law, President Yoon revoked his decree. His dictatorship didn’t even last a full day. Shortly thereafter, the National Assembly also moved to impeach President Yoon. This weekend, Korean lawmakers will debate his actions and vote on removing him from office.
Although the political situation in South Korea is far from resolved, the country’s democratic resilience this week serves as both an inspiration to citizens of other democracies and also cause for vigilance…
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** The Bottom Line
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** 1. The politics of the pardon ([link removed])
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On Sunday, President Biden did what he had promised never to do—pardon ([link removed]) his son Hunter. Whether the president was lying all along or only recently made the decision when Trump won and began selecting a loyal cabinet bent on retribution, Biden’s decision has come under fire from across the political spectrum. As RDI Advisory Board member Bret Stephens ([link removed]) noted in recent column for The New York Times, “when a Democratic president behaves as Biden just did, it fuels the corrosive public cynicism that helped elect Trump yet again while licensing and excusing whatever plans the president-elect may have for politicizing justice and using it for the benefit of friends, family and self.”
** 2. Political paralysis strikes France ([link removed])
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After the far-right National Rally won this summer’s snap legislative elections, the French National Assembly has existed in tense limbo. It has been led by Prime Minister Michel Barnier, nominated by centrist French President Emmanuel Macron, but dominated by the far right. Yesterday, Barnier lost a no-confidence vote and France inches closer to a full far-right government while confronting economic instability ([link removed]) .
** 3. Hello Venezuelan oil and goodbye Venezuelan democracy ([link removed])
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When critics of President-elect Trump point out his affinity towards autocrats, his defenders naturally point to his policy of maximum pressure towards regimes like Venezuela. A recent report by the Wall Street Journal details quiet lobbying efforts by American executives that could signal the end of that policy. Rather than continue a policy of maximum pressure, billionaires have been trying to show Trump the upside of working with Nicholas Maduro’s regime. In simple terms: more oil for fewer migrants. Some experts call this approach “pragmatic,” making the case that increasing ties with the regime would stem the flow of migrants, stabilize American energy prices, and reclaim market shares from the likes of China and Russia. But one thing is clear: If Washington chooses this path, any hope of the Venezuelan opposition reclaiming its democracy in the near-term may disappear.
** 4. Russia is preventing Georgia from joining the EU ([link removed])
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Protests erupted in Georgia after Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze announced plans to halt the nation's entry into the European Union last Thursday. Georgia’s democratic opposition is furious after enduring a foreign agents law that closely mirrored a Kremlin policy and a parliamentary election that observers have declared ([link removed]) as unfree and unfair. Georgia’s entry into the EU would put the nation on a clear path away from Russia’s sphere of influence towards the West. Whether it will eventually walk it has become less clear.
** 5. How China is turning supply chains into new battlefields ([link removed])
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A new domain of warfare is opening up, and the battlefields are the supply chains critical to US manufacturing. With a second Trump term almost guaranteeing a confrontational and hostile relationship with China, the CCP has been preparing for economic war. The lines between economic and national security are being blurred. “Our economic and financial systems are vulnerable to authoritarian influence, but they are also tools we can wield against these regimes,” write RDI’s Caitlin Forrest and Sohan Mewada ([link removed]) on fighting authoritarian influence. “By divesting from bad governments and supply chains that exploit forced labor, we take money out of dictators’ pockets. A poorly funded regime is a weak regime, and that is good for US national security, US businesses, and global human rights.”
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“Well… what are you thankful for?”
This year, it might feel especially hard to name something.
By Uriel Epshtein — November 27, 2024
Read Here ([link removed])
** RDI Productions Presents:
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** Politics at the Table
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“No politics at the table please.”
We’ve all heard this aside, whether it is Thanksgiving and the turkey has just been set on the table or a random Sunday evening when everyone gathers to share a meal.
Fear of discussing politics in personal and professional relationships has become a feature of modern American culture.
But discourse on polarizing political topics is meant to be uncomfortable.
In our new series launching tomorrow, we encourage a different path away from fear and towards sensible, polite disagreement.
It is a sign of a healthy democracy to be able to discuss uncomfortable topics in good faith. Politics has its place at the table too.
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