In a Democratic Society, the People Must Choose

In a democratic society, the people hold sovereignty. They direct their own lives and have the final authority to decide the values of the national community. Politicians and bureaucrats are merely servants of the people. As sovereign citizens, the people must be able to choose.

Politicians who are entrusted with power through elections must not engage in activities that infringe upon the people’s property rights and freedom of choice. Threatening individual liberty and property rights limits the sovereignty of the people and therefore runs contrary to the order of our society.

Accordingly, the National Assembly must not enact laws that take away the people’s freedom of choice. Depriving the people of that freedom through legislation is inherently undemocratic.

The government must abolish regulations that infringe upon the people’s freedom of choice, as well as policies in which policymakers substitute their own judgment for consumers’ choices. If there are regulations that have restricted the people’s freedom of choice in the name of the public interest, they should be boldly dismantled.

Across the major programs of government ministries—including the Ministry of Employment and Labor, the Ministry of Environment, the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, the Korea Fair Trade Commission, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, and the Ministry of SMEs and Startups—there are regulations scattered throughout that restrict the people’s freedom of choice. Some limit ownership and contracting, while others restrict price-setting authority or purchasing choice. There are even areas in which the method of distribution is forcibly imposed, fundamentally nullifying freedom of choice. We must break free from the arrogance and prejudice that the government can make better choices than the people.

The people’s freedom of choice must not be restricted or violated for the benefit of professionals who supply goods or services in specific sectors, such as civil servants, workers, and farmers. In many areas, public institutions are encroaching on the private sector while claiming to serve the public interest. They are wasting tax money by turning work that could be done by private organizations, companies, and sole proprietors into jobs for civil servants. Regulations that block private-sector entry and prevent private actors from operating must be swiftly removed. At the same time, regulations created in the name of the interests of workers and farmers must also be dismantled.

The people and consumers possess sovereignty, but suppliers do not. Suppliers must only earn the choice of the people and consumers, and they can exist only through that choice. Civil servants are able to work only because the people exist, and workers and farmers are able to work because consumers choose them. The people are consumers, and they are the ones who decide who will supply. For politicians or those in power to make such decisions in their place violates the democratic order.

The people must be able to choose who will govern, who will produce goods, who will carry out religious work, and who will play the role of the press. Even if the National Assembly enacts legislation restricting freedom of choice in the name of the public interest, such laws are nothing more than wrongful laws that restrict the people’s freedom.

The people’s freedom of choice must not be infringed upon and must be protected by law. I hope the political standards of our National Assembly will rise and contribute to protecting and expanding the people’s property rights and freedom of choice.

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

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Original title: 민주사회에서는 국민이 선택해야

Author: Sung-no Choi

Date: 2024-04-19

Source: https://www.cfe.org/bbs/bbsDetail.php?cid=press&idx=26565