New Left Review 51, May-June 2008

CHARLES ARMSTRONG

CONTESTING THE PENINSULA

Although capital and politics are closely intertwined in most contemporary democracies, it is rare for an electorate to vote into highest office the former chief executive of a major corporation. To a select group including Italy’s Berlusconi, Thaksin of Thailand and, at the local level, Mayor Bloomberg in New York we can now add South Korea’s tough-talking Lee Myung-bak—a.k.a. ‘The Bulldozer’—former head of Hyundai Construction and Mayor of Seoul, who was elected President by a landslide on 19 December 2007. This was not the first time a Hyundai executive had run for President of South Korea: the founder of the Hyundai Group, Chung Ju-young, garnered 16 per cent of the vote in 1992. Lee’s victory, however, has proved unprecedented in several respects. First, although Lee’s winning margin was the widest since democratic elections began in 1987—his 48.7 per cent of the vote far outstripped the 26.7 per cent won by his closest challenger, Chung Dong-young of the centre-left United New Democratic Party—the equally historic low turnout, at just over 62 per cent, meant that he had the support of less than a third of the overall electorate. [1] ‘Lee Wins with Biggest Margin in Lowest Turnout’, Korea Times, 19 December 2007.

’My institution subscribes to NLR, why can't I access this article?’