Mobocracy

Fareed Zakaria, author of The Future of Freedom: Illiberal Democracy at Home and Abroad, would probably label South Korea an illiberal democracy. The "democratization" that began in the 1980's and culminated in the election of Kim Dae-jung in 1998 has resulted in the following situation, as described in The Independent Press Under Siege and the Crisis in Representative Democracy:

"The crisis they face today lies in how this public is being exchanged for a 'mass' and a 'crowd' that responds emotionally and acts spontaneously to the symbol manipulation of political authority....

"...Political authority has unleashed an all-out attack on the independent press. The attack is indiscriminate in its means. To begin with, has blocked the press from carrying out its essential functions, by denying access and refusing coverage by the independent press.

"Looking at the kind of choices President Roh Moo-hyun has made in giving press interviews since his inauguration, you are immediately able to draw a map of the press, complete with the media that are to be avoided and the media that are in good favor. The existence and news covering activities of the critical and independent press is being thoroughly ignored. This would be unimaginable in a properly democratic society.

"There are programs from public broadcasting that attack the [conservative newspapers] Chosun Ilbo and the DongA Ilbo. Demonstrations using signs and loud speakers take place in front of both newspapers. There is stone throwing by internet masses using vulgar and low grade language. There are campaigns touring the country encouraging a boycotts. These developments speak of their persistence.

"The vanguard of these attacks on the independent press are attempting to dissolve the independently thinking and rationally acting people into the masses and crowds that can be manipulated by mob psychology and mass psychology, turning them into ignorant and riotous masses. The result is a reality where there is essentially no press, a situation you cannot find in a modern nation, since political authority blocks its ears to criticism from the independent press while the ideologically aligned media obey that political authority."