This paper is a deontological justification of consensus democracy as an alternative
model in Korean politics. Korea has experienced a crisis of representation
marked by increasing exclusion of the voices of social minorities and a crisis
of solidarity in which there is an absence of sufficient trust between social
minorities and majorities. To solve these crises, this paper argues the need for a
paradigm shift from majoritarian democracy to consensus democracy.
Majoritarian democracy does not work properly as Korean society has
undergone various, new cleavages from below, resulting in a widening gap
between winners and losers. In contrast, consensus democracy in the form of
a parliamentary system, proportional representation, and federalism may be
an alternative model that could resolve people’s current discontent over Korean
politics. However, many scholars criticize the inefficiency of consensus
democracy based on consequentialist reasoning, which traces the result or
effect of a certain policy in order to judge whether it is desirable or not. This
paper argues against such criticism from the viewpoint of deontological reasoning
in which a certain policy is supported as long as it bears its own value
based on its capacity for normative rationalization.