[Article] On Politics and Conduct / Kim Jong-yup
The Quarterly Changbi 199, Spring 2023
Abstract
Carefully examining examples in which our views of politicians’ conduct have mediated our political judgments, sociologist Kim Jong-yup examines the state of “conduct criticism” and the problems in such a practice. The more intense the debates about conduct, the more focused on this issue our perspective on politics would become, so that even our criticisms of such political practices become concentrated on politicians’ conduct. As a result, the matter of policy, which is central to political criticism, falls outside our perspective. Moreover, there is also the danger that we ignore the task of self-reflection, feeling falsely superior while ridiculing and despising politicians. Kim convincingly argues how going outside the critiquing of conduct, a current mainstay of our political thought, is a way of working for a grand transformation of our society.