E-Democracy in South Korea
South Korea’s former President Roh Moo-hyun is making waves in the press at the moment after launching a new e-democracy website called Democracy 2.0 that is designed to foster greater public debate. It’s an interesting move for lots of reasons and seems beyond the run-of-the-mill political websites that regularly spring up around the world.
Firstly, Korea is one of the most wired nations on earth, and the participation rates in social networking sites such as Cyworld outstrip anything seen in countries like the UK. Already, some of the previous attempts at e-democracy (many instigated as part of Rho’s presidency) have had some interesting, albeit limited, impacts.
Secondly, there have been some recent signs that citizens are beginning to use the internet as a serious tool for political participation. Indeed, recent demonstrations against imports of US beef were largely organised online and the International Herald Tribune talked of a ‘new generation of Web 2.0 protestors‘ when reporting on the protests. In a relatively young democracy (in only its 20th year now), where political parties and political coalitions are still in a state of flux, web based movements perhaps have an added potency.
Thirdly, and not unrelated, the conservative government against whom the above mentioned protests were aimed are reportedly looking at restricting some online political activism in order to reduce the flow of misinformation it feels contributed to the anti-US beef import demonstrations. Rho’s site must be seen as some sort of direct response to this. And, his e-democracy credentials become bolder still when it comes clear that he is also in a battle with the current government over his attempts to keep hold of confidential government papers relating to his own Presidency that he downloaded from a government intranet he established during his Presidency.
The big question now, it seems, is whether all this points to Rho becoming politically active once again - and, I guess, whether he will look to harness Web 2.0 technologies to help him in doing so.
