If there are long periods when a firm order continues in the history of a society, there are also turbulent moments when the desire for change conceived by that order erupts. Last fall and winter, when millions of citizens joined the candlelight rallies, was that moment. The battle between the regressive power, which resists such change, and the advancing power, which seeks to complete the change, continues. The group with the historical self-consciousness on what that change has achieved will have the power to define the future.

The most significant accomplishment in modern Korean history by the candlelight citizens would be the fact that they raised the quality of democracy in South Korea, which was established in 1987 one step higher. What the citizens sought behind the slogan, "a direct presidential election" heard during the pro-democracy demonstrations in 1987 was electoral and competitive democracy. In other words, they demanded that the people directly choose their representative. However, there was no guarantee that that representative would engage in good politics. Participatory democracy emerged as a way to complement that system. The citizens became watchdogs of politics and made efforts to complete representative politics until the days of the Participatory Government.

The Lee Myung-bak and Park Geun-hye governments pushed back all the accomplishments of democracy. But surprisingly, the candlelight citizens did not stop at restoring democracy to its previous stage, but took a huge step further. What they sought was constitutional democracy뾢ven forces selected by the majority cannot rule above the law and cannot undermine constitutional values such as the people's basic rights. After democracy in South Korea took a step back, it took two steps forward and is now gradually rooting the principle of democratic competition into civil society and the constitutional order.

The candlelight demonstrations also have historical significance for they reaffirmed the tradition of "people power" in Korean history. Korean citizens pulled down corrupt dictators from their thrones on several occasions with high ideals and courageous actions. Citizens with the collective memory of the April 19 Revolution of 1960 and the June 10 pro-democracy struggles of 1987 once again displayed the power of the democratic civil society with the candlelight demonstrations of 2016. The experience of civil victory, which took place almost every 30 years, will leave a lasting trace in the historical imagination of citizens and people in power.

Furthermore, the candlelight rallies that have repeatedly taken place in the 2000s were a strong driving force in the development of representative democracy and party democracy. The candlelight rallies primarily reflect the desire for direct democracy. They showed that the people were not satisfied with regular elections, and that the people wanted to personally exert influence over the government and the National Assembly. They also showed that if institutional politics failed to keep bad power in check and punish such wrongdoings, the people would take action.

However, the argument that such desire for direct democracy is in conflict with party politics is not valid. Participants of the candlelight demonstrations were not hostile or indifferent to party politics. They were more active in casting votes than nonparticipants and they also had a wealth of political information. What's more, citizens never tried to take the place of representative politics. The candlelight rallies emerged as an effective way for citizens to exercise a 뱎olitics of influence