Lee Emphasizes Max Weber's "Sense of Balance": "Politics Should Be a Competition to Perform Well"

Highlighting Prevention of State Violence Through the Jeju 4·3 Incident

"There Are Cases Where Politicians Harm the Public While Pursuing Their Own Group's Interests"

Emphasizing That "Ultimately, Politics Must Return to Normal"

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On March 30, President Lee Jaemyung commented on South Korea’s political culture, stating, “It is not right for politicians, who are directly responsible for the lives of the people, to use their own beliefs and values as experiments.” He further remarked, “Even Max Weber emphasized the importance of a sense of balance,” and questioned, “Politics is about reality. Why should ideology, values, or personal inclinations be so important?”

Yonhap News

At a town hall meeting held at the Halla Convention Center in Jeju that day, President Lee mentioned that national violence, such as the Jeju 4·3 Incident, must never be repeated. He said, “Ultimately, politics must be normalized,” making these comments in what is seen as a response to the recent debate in the political sphere over the so-called ‘ABC theory’—a framework suggested by author Yoo Simin that categorizes politicians as ‘value-driven’ or ‘interest-driven.’

President Lee criticized, “A society where people increase their own wealth by killing others or taking what belongs to others is an abnormal society. That is how our past was.” He added, “Even today, we still see such behaviors. People may claim that they are acting democratically or in the interest of the nation and its people, but if you look closely, there are times when, in fact, they harm the country and its citizens while pursuing the interests of their own groups.”

He continued, “In reality, people form factions and exploit vested interests and the system to enforce illegality and unfairness.”

He thus stressed the need to normalize politics. President Lee said, “Politics should be a competition to do better,” adding, “Normalizing politics means creating a system where politicians compete to see who best meets the expectations of the people.”

He emphasized that the standard for judging whether politics is being conducted well should be the greatest happiness for the majority of people. President Lee stated, “There may be those who enter politics to realize their own beliefs and values. While that may have some merit, if it ultimately results in harm, then that cannot be considered good politics.”

Previously, author Yoo Simin analyzed recent developments within the ruling party by introducing the ‘ABC theory’—a classification based on Max Weber’s concepts of the ‘ethic of conviction’ and ‘ethic of responsibility.’ According to this framework, politicians are divided into three types: ‘A’ for those who pursue values, ‘B’ for those who pursue private interests, and ‘C’ for those who pursue both values and interests.

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