Cynical and Celebratory Sensibilities in South Korea’s 2022 Presidential Election

Why was South Korea’s 2022 presidential election so close, when only a few years prior the party of the winning candidate had been out of contention? The answer can be found by situating the election against a battle between democratic and anti-democratic forces. Anti-democratic forces cynically bid for power by denigrating politics. An examination of how this cynical sensibility developed, from 2016 to 2022, but on the back of a deeper history, points both to what was at stake in this election and to the methods deployed by representatives of the anti-democratic forces that helped create parity in the vote.

视角

2022年韩国总统大选中的政治情感：玩世不恭与拥戴赞颂

关键词：选举政治, 政党政治, 民主, 韩国政治。

2022年韩国总统选举中, 获胜候选人所属的政党几年前还毫无机会，但竞选角逐为何如此激烈？我们将选举置于民主和反民主力量的较量的背景中考察就能得到答案。反民主势力通过玩世不恭地诋毁政治来竞逐权力。对这种玩世不恭情绪如何在2016到2022年期间——但同时也在更深远的历史背景之下——如何演进的考察既表明了这次大选的利害攸关之处，也揭示了反民主力量的代表人物用以制造出选票差距的方法。

Translated by Li Guo