Did the opposition's think tank take an early step toward centrist expansion... Released conservative discourse manifesto emphasizing 'Freedom and Growth'

Party Leadership and Jeonjunwi Receive Draft Innovation Plan
Includes Core Values and Attitudes in the Charter
Goals of Centrist Expansion and Nationwide Party
Jeonjunwi Chairman: "Revision of 'Income-led Growth' Expression Will Be Achieved"
Survey on Charter Revision Launched Targeting Party-affiliated Lawmakers

No Woong-rae, Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker [Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporters Naju-seok and Park Joon-yi] It has been confirmed that the Democratic Research Institute, the think tank of the Democratic Party of Korea, recently delivered an innovation plan to the party leadership proposing to include the core values of ‘freedom and growth’ in the party platform. This indicates that the Democratic Party, which had previously emphasized progressivism, intends to incorporate conservative values such as ‘freedom’ and ‘growth’ into its platform, suggesting a greater focus on expanding its appeal to the political center. Alongside this, the Party Convention Preparation Committee’s platform subcommittee has also begun conducting surveys among party members, asking about policies that have lost public support, such as ‘income-led growth, nuclear phase-out, real estate, and minimum wage.’

Assemblyman Noh Woong-rae, who heads the Democratic Research Institute, told Asia Economy on the 27th, "We have delivered a ‘platform innovation plan’ to the Emergency Response Committee and the Party Convention Preparation Committee," adding, "It includes three elements: ‘freedom, growth, and life.’" Currently, the platform contains five core values: ‘fairness, safety, inclusion, prosperity, and peace,’ and the proposal is to add these three new values. Previously, the Emergency Response Committee announced that it would discuss the ‘top 10 priority tasks’ submitted by the Democratic Research Institute at the leadership level.

Regarding the necessity of ‘freedom,’ Assemblyman Noh explained, "In the past, we rejected the value of ‘freedom’ as it was seen as opposing anti-communism," adding, "Freedom and fairness should be mutually reinforcing values. Fairness without freedom can become blind or mechanical fairness." On ‘growth,’ he mentioned that the focus would be on ‘individual-level growth’ rather than a state-led concept. He also emphasized the need to discuss a concept of growth different from the Moon Jae-in administration’s ‘income-led growth.’ He said, "We pursued ‘income-led growth,’ but ultimately it was not successful," and added, "Creating a new growth discourse to replace it is a future task."

The Democratic Party’s decision to embrace values such as freedom and growth in its platform, despite previously emphasizing progressivism, represents a bold change aimed at strengthening its appeal to the political center. Assemblyman Noh stated, "The fundamental reason for failures in by-elections, presidential elections, and local elections is the gap between party sentiment and public sentiment," and added, "We need to persuade our support base and reflect the opinions of the centrist voters to become a party that encompasses the views of the entire nation."

He also noted, "While it is necessary to change ideological excess and bias, it is important to clarify that reforms of conglomerates (chaebols) do not mean that ‘chaebols themselves are bad and should be reformed as a whole.’" Additionally, considering the importance of climate, ecology, environment, and safety issues, the proposal includes incorporating the value of ‘life’ into the platform to encompass these concerns.

Regarding party members’ attitudes, a plan was also proposed to include values such as humility, common sense, and practicality in the form of ‘10 behavioral guidelines’ within the platform. Assemblyman Noh explained, "Our party needs to renew its image as a ‘hypocritical party’," adding, "For this, the entire party should adopt a ‘humble mode,’ which means aligning with the public’s perspective and common sense, and pursuing a ‘practical and realistic’ approach."

The Democratic Party’s Convention Preparation Committee is also positive about revising the platform in this direction. The committee is conducting a survey among lawmakers regarding the platform revision proposal. In addition to the Democratic Research Institute’s suggestions, the survey includes questions about changing ‘income-led growth’ to ‘inclusive growth’ and about chaebol reform.

Ahead of the meeting on the same day, Committee Chair Ahn Kyu-baek told reporters, "It seems that the expression ‘income-led growth’ will be revised," but added, "However, chaebol reform will remain as stated in the existing platform." Regarding discussions on core values, he said, "We are currently communicating among lawmakers," and added, "We plan to finalize the platform revision around the 15th of next month."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.