Does social media promote participatory democracy? Evidence from South Korea’s presidential impeachment protests?

This study examines whether social media contributed to the success of the Korean presidential impeachment protests of 2016–17 and promoted participatory democracy. The 2016–17 candlelight protests contributed to the overthrowing of a corrupt regime. However, was it a victory of participatory democracy? To answer this question, we must first be clear on what kind of participatory democracy is being referred to. Therefore, while social media played a crucial role in the success of the protests, the impact of social media on participatory democracy should be addressed separately. For this purpose, we first analyse the contributions of the digitally connected movements during the 2016–17 protests with two social movement theories: resource mobilisation and collective identity. Second, we examine whether the success of digitally connective movements during those protests promoted participatory democracy. To discuss this issue, we use Arnstein’s concept of a ‘ladder of participation’, which describes participatory democracy as falling within three levels, from non-participation through tokenism to citizen power. This study shows that the proliferation of social media politics by itself does not convert representative democracy into participatory democracy. This implies that even if social media augments citizens’ power of resistance, it cannot transform citizens into a governing power.