【by Alex Taek-Gwang Lee, Dec. 2024】
In December 2024, martial law was declared in an unlikely nation: South Korea. Known as the birthplace of the Korean Wave and celebrated as a global cultural heavyweight, South Korea had long stood as a model of economic development and democratic values in Asia since World War II. The nation’s remarkable journey from the ruins of the Korean War and the iron fist of military dictatorship to a vibrant democracy and economic powerhouse made its sudden regression into authoritarianism all the more jarring.
The foundations of South Korea’s modern democracy were forged through tremendous social upheaval, particularly the 1980 Gwangju uprising and the 1987 student movement. These watershed moments established a crucial democratic principle: civilian control over the military through the democratically elected leadership. However, this transformation inadvertently created an imbalanced power structure that would later prove problematic.
The resulting constitutional framework of the Sixth Republic emerged from negotiations between multiple stakeholders: former military authorities, business elites, the managerial class, and labor representatives. At its heart was a strong presidential system, with the president viewed as the direct voice of the people, while the National Assembly was often perceived as representing established interests. This arrangement, while initially stabilizing, contained structural weaknesses that would later surface during times of crisis.
As Gérard Duménil and Dominique Lévy argue in Capital Resurgent, subsequent civilian governments gradually undermined this democratic consensus through neoliberal reforms pursued in the name of economic growth. These policies particularly marginalized working-class interests, creating tensions within the democratic system. The concentration of power in the presidency, combined with weakened institutional checks and balances, left South Korea vulnerable to presidential overreach – a vulnerability that would eventually manifest in democratic crises. The December 3 coup attempt by the president, who declared martial law and characterized the constitutional body, the parliament, as a “legislative dictatorship,” illustrates the inverted logic of South Korea’s democracy.
In contemporary South Korea, profound shifts in political consciousness and social movements reflect the deep impact of neoliberal reforms implemented since the 1990s IMF crisis. What began as economic restructuring has evolved into a comprehensive transformation of social relations, political institutions, and cultural values. The period since 2016 has witnessed the maturation of these neoliberal dynamics across multiple domains: from North-South relations and nuclear politics to feminist activism and technocratic governance. These changes reflect not merely local developments but the particular ways South Korea has integrated into, and contested, global neoliberal currents affecting democratic institutions, social movements, and geopolitical alignments.
Two particularly significant threads emerge from recent developments. First, there has been a fundamental shift in how political authority and legitimacy are conceived and contested. The decline of traditional patriarchal authority figures – whether in the form of liberal democracy or North Korea’s unification rhetoric – has occurred alongside the rise of market-based metrics of social worth. The once-celebrated leaders of the democracy movement, who became advocates of neoliberal reform in the 1990s, have lost moral authority as their policies deepened economic inequalities they once opposed. This transformation has given way to new forms of political discourse centered on individual merit, procedural fairness, and technical competence – hallmarks of neoliberal governance that reduce complex social antagonisms to matters of administrative efficiency and personal responsibility.
Second, we see the emergence of new forms of political subjectivity and activism that directly respond to neoliberalization’s effects. The rise of fourth-wave feminism in South Korea, catalyzed by digital technologies and tragic events like the 2016 Gangnam Station murder, represents resistance to both traditional patriarchy and neoliberal commodification of women’s bodies and labor. These movements operate through what might be called an “affective politics” – generating collective action not through unified ideological positions but through shared emotional responses to the precarity and violence that characterize neoliberal social relations.
These developments occur against a backdrop of shifting geopolitical realities shaped by global neoliberal capitalism. North Korea’s recent constitutional changes and strategic realignment with Russia suggest a departure from traditional inter-Korean dynamics based on ethnic unity, instead positioning itself within an emerging multipolar order that challenges U.S.-led neoliberal hegemony. Meanwhile, South Korea grapples with internal tensions between technocratic governance and grassroots demands for recognition and justice, as exemplified by disability rights protests against the marketization of public transportation and feminist movements confronting the commodification of women’s bodies.
The transformation of South Korean society under neoliberalism has produced paradoxical effects: while traditional sources of authority and social solidarity have eroded, new forms of collective resistance have emerged that challenge both old hierarchies and new market-based forms of domination. Understanding these changes requires examining how neoliberal reforms have reshaped not only economic relations but also political legitimacy, social movements, and conceptions of national identity. As South Korea enters the third decade of the 21st century, the interactions between neoliberal governance and various forms of resistance continues to define its political and social landscape.
The president’s obsession with dictatorship and the military’s attempts to restore authoritarian rule reveal a deeper tension in South Korea’s democratic transition: the persistent shadow of autocratic power lurking beneath the polished surface of the country’s economic miracle. The attempted return to authoritarianism exposes the contradiction between South Korea’s celebrated capitalism and its darker foundations of fascist rule, a relationship that continues to haunt the country’s democratic aspirations. In this feature, we sought to expose the various issues that have surfaced during South Korea’s recent democratization in different ways. Current tensions in the country underscore the enduring complexity of these challenges. Drawing from film, literature, popular culture, and philosophy, these essays illuminate both the tangible realities and abstract forces shaping contemporary South Korea. Each piece offers a unique lens through which to examine the tapestry of modern South Korea, from its vibrant cultural productions to its deeper theoretical underpinnings.
AUTHOR
Alex Taek-Gwang Lee is a professor of cultural studies and a founding director of the Centre for Technology in Humanities at Kyung Hee University, Korea. He is also a visiting professor at the Centre for Applied Philosophy, Politics and Ethics at the University of Brighton (UK) and the Graduate School at The University of Santo Tomas (Philippines). He served as an academic advisor for Gwangju Biennale in 2017 and as a program manager for the Venice Biennale of Architecture in 2021. He co-edited the third volume of The Idea of Communism (2016) and Deleuze, Guattari and the Schizoanalysis of Postmedia (2023) and authored Communism After Deleuze (2025) and Made in Nowhere: Essays on the Asiatic Modes of Production (2025).