Yoon Suk Yeol Administration: Open an Era of Rule of Law

The path the Yoon Suk Yeol administration must take is the rule of law. In a state governed by the rule of law, the government does not undermine social order through arbitrary intervention. In such a normal society, individuals live freely, making their own choices and bearing responsibility for them. In an advanced country, the rule of law should be taken for granted, but in our society its foundations are still weak. Strengthening them is the historic task the Yoon Suk Yeol administration must accomplish.

The failures of the previous Moon Jae-in administration were so great that fairness and common sense became central public concerns. It fell into socialism and pushed back the market economy. As misguided ideology was turned into law, economic transactions were distorted and people’s lives fell into confusion. Abnormal conditions persisted, and spontaneous order receded. The failure of left-wing policies is inevitable. That is because of the unrealistic nature of socialism. In the end, the public’s disappointment was immense.

The people grew disillusioned with an incompetent political force and wanted a change of government. That is how the Yoon Suk Yeol administration was born. It was given the historic mission of opening a new era, driven by the people’s desire to move toward a normal country. Now, rather than allowing the order of life to regress, we must move toward a more advanced order. To meet this demand, we must abandon policies trapped in outdated ideology and remain committed to capitalist policies grounded in reality.

People are, by nature, inclined to put their own interests first. In a society governed by the rule of law, those individual desires are harmonized in ways that lead people to cooperate socially and produce better outcomes. If exploitation of others or breach of contract were allowed, the foundation of trust in such a society would collapse, and people would come to depend on political power or seek privileges. Some would even form groups and continue fighting to secure political privileges. A society that falls into that collectivist trap degenerates.

The rule of law is a system that allows people to protect their freedom and property from power or violence. This is possible only when the government’s role is defined and limited by law. It is impossible in a society where the government can easily violate someone’s human rights and seize property arbitrarily or in the name of public sentiment. When the government carelessly replaces or suppresses private-sector activity, that is an abuse of power. When the government’s role is limited by law and the government abides by those limits, building trust over the long term, it can carry out its role strongly and clearly.

A government that maintains a strict standard of limiting its own role has the power to restrain those who pursue political privilege. That is because when those in power demand political privileges while claiming they themselves are exceptions, such conduct can be punished. Preventing those in power from pursuing privilege is precisely the process of establishing the rule of law.

How should the problems of the world be solved? It is desirable to ensure that people pursuing profit work harder for the public and for consumers, thereby increasing social benefits. This can be described as competition. The rule of law should protect such competition. In other words, protecting competition, property rights, and contracts is the foundation of the rule of law.

Once the law begins to take someone’s side and grant privileges to a particular class, that is where decay and corruption begin. Those in power, chasing such privileges, grow greedier for more, and such political methods make the law abnormal. In some cases, politicians even institutionalize privilege. They turn the law into a tool for protecting their vested interests. Just because something has been legislated does not mean the law is just and right.

A true law is one that protects and promotes individual freedom and property rights. Efforts are needed to normalize laws that have departed from the spirit of the rule of law. The spirit of the age that our society must now embrace is constitutionalism.

Sung-no Choi, President of the Center for Free Enterprise (CFE)

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Original title: 윤석열 정부는 법치의 시대를 열어라

Author: Sung-no Choi

Date: 2022-05-03

Source: https://www.cfe.org/bbs/bbsDetail.php?cid=press&idx=24717