Kim Minseok: "The Core of a Party Member Sovereignty Party Is Deliberation, AI, and Culture... Must Lead K-Democracy"

"From One Member, One Vote to One Member, One Sovereignty"

"Experimenting with Deliberative Democracy through the True Party Member Sovereignty Task Force"

Minseok Kim, candidate for leader of the Democratic Party, emphasized on July 21, "The three major themes for a 21st-century party based on member sovereignty are deliberation, artificial intelligence (AI), and culture." He argued that, through these, "the Democratic Party should become a leading party for democracy and the main driver of K-democracy."

On this day at the National Assembly Members' Office Building, Kim hosted a forum titled "The Era of Party Member Sovereignty, Toward an AI Democratic Party." He stated, "The one-person, one-vote system for party members is just the start; the real goal must be one-person, one-sovereignty," and stressed, "We need to implement deliberative all-member voting."

Kim Minseok, candidate for the Democratic Party leader. Photo by Yonhap News

He further announced that, after the party convention, he would establish a "True Party Member Sovereignty Task Force" directly under the party leader. He added, "Regarding party member sovereignty and deliberative democracy, I have asked former Governor Kim Kyung-Ah to take the lead after the convention."

Kim highlighted, "The Democratic Party is the only party among all democratic nations in the world to have more than 1 million members." He continued, "We must realize direct democracy and deliberation at the scale of millions, not just tens of thousands. We need to pioneer an experiment that is the first of its kind globally."

He went on, "To facilitate public discussion, deliberation must be combined with scale. To achieve scale, technology and AI are inevitable. Integrating AI with our party is the challenge we must take on."

Kim stated, "The key method to become a deliberation-based, party member sovereignty party is deliberative all-member voting." He pointed out, "Though we have experience with such voting in the past, it was too hasty. If all party members are suddenly asked to vote on topics that even experts find difficult, is that really democracy?" He added, "I have come to think that all-member voting should be prohibited if there is no deliberation. And if the voter turnout is too low, does the vote have any meaning?" He insisted, "We need to introduce quorum rules and deliberation regulations for all-member voting."

He also stated, "We must design a system involving policy delegates, policy juries, or policy deliberation managers." Through this, he emphasized, "For sensitive topics such as the financial investment income tax or real estate tax system, the party should create a framework that enables members to deliberate."

Kim referred to his experience establishing the party member autonomy associations during Chu Mi-ae's tenure as party leader and said, "At that time, activities of the autonomy associations were limited so as not to clash with regional committees, as such conflicts could destabilize the committees. But now it is time to revise the system." He continued, "For example, the party should support regional associations such as the Gyeonggi Basic Income Member Deliberation Association or Jeonnam Solar Income Research Member Deliberation Association."

Regarding issues facing young people, he asserted, "All events and meetings of the party should be transformed through direct dialogue with youth. If we fail to address these issues, our party will be stuck in the Stone Age."

After officially announcing his candidacy for party leader, Kim has been holding a series of forums aimed at party innovation for a "Democratic Party That Wins Again." He had previously held forums supporting the three major mega-projects of the Lee Jaemyung administration and discussions on building a youth-friendly Democratic Party for 2030. The final fourth forum will address themes of integration, solidarity, and nomination issues.

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