The victory of Moon Jae-in in South Korea’s presidential election was widely expected, but is no less welcome for that. He has a chance to stop the political rot in a country whose democratic development has not always kept pace with its remarkable economic growth.
The period running up to the election has shown Korea’s political weaknesses overcome by its strengths. The deep-rooted corruption in the nexus between politics and business was laid bare in a bribery scandal that eventually engulfed the country’s first female president, Park Geun-hye. Yet the system proved capable, on this occasion, of addressing the problem. The legislative and judicial branches of government managed to hold a corrupt executive to account. Ms Park was impeached in the national legislature and the decision upheld by Korea’s constitutional court.
The subsequent electoral victory for Mr Moon, a former human rights lawyer from the opposition Democratic party, promises a possibility for change that goes beyond simply electing another politician to continue the existing patterns of governance. Mr Moon has the chance to clean up Korea’s murky political culture, strengthen the norms of corporate governance, boost the productive potential of an underperforming economy, and even establish a position in foreign policy that gives Seoul its proper role in confronting the problems of North Korea.