Plurality in Korea

In South Korea, no commercial Korean edition of *Plurality* has yet been confirmed, and the only translation of every chapter is an unofficial machine translation. Instead, the ideas have been introduced little by little through Audrey Tang's talks in Korea, Glen Weyl's earlier book 『래디컬 마켓』 (*Radical Markets*), and Korea's own institutions of deliberation.

South Korea has experience of citizens proposing policies to the government online, and of panels of randomly selected citizens discussing hard national questions. Audrey Tang of Taiwan (오드리 탕 in Korean) has also spoken at events in Korea many times. Yet the book Plurality by Tang and E. Glen Weyl (글렌 웨일) is still not widely read there. By what routes have the book's ideas reached Korea?

In short

As of October 2026, no commercial Korean edition of Plurality can be confirmed. The only way to read every chapter in Korean is an unofficial machine translation made by a volunteer [1][2].

Instead, the book's ideas have been introduced little by little through other doors: Tang's own talks and interviews in Korea, Weyl's earlier book 『래디컬 마켓』 (Radical Markets), and Korea's own debates on deliberation (deciding things by talking them through carefully) and citizen participation [3][4].

For example

Her first visit to Korea (April 12, 2017). Tang visited Korea for the first time to give a keynote at "코드게이트 2017" (Codegate 2017), an international hacking-defense contest held at Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP) in Seoul. Asked in an interview, Tang said that open government means an environment in which anyone can access the government's public data, and citizens can understand the policy process and give their opinions [5].

An age of plurality, not of the singularity (September 11, 2024). At "트라이 에브리싱 2024" (Try Everything 2024), a start-up event at the same DDP, Tang opened her talk by saying she wanted to strengthen the idea of "다원성" (plurality). The article's headline said that in the age of AI one should say that what is approaching is not the singularity but "다원성의 시대" (an age of plurality) [3].

사람과디지털포럼 (People and Digital Forum, June 25, 2025). At a forum held every year by the research institute of the Hankyoreh newspaper, Tang gave a keynote titled "디지털 집단지성은 여전히 민주주의의 미래인가" (Is digital collective intelligence still the future of democracy?). According to the report, Tang said that we should build horizontal AI rather than vertical AI. She closed with the words "미래는 단일하지 않다. 미래는 복수다" (the future is not singular; the future is plural) [6].

In more detail

The person came before the book

What first spread in Korean was not the book but Tang herself. In 2020, Tang led the keynote session at an international forum held by South Gyeongsang Province on the theme of COVID-19 and local democracy [7]. OhmyNews introduced the text Tang had submitted in advance, and reported her call, in substance, to always remember that plurality exists whenever we hear that the singularity is near [8]. In 2023 she appeared on 『위대한 수업』 (Great Minds), a lecture program on the educational broadcaster EBS [9].

Weyl is known for the Korean edition of 『래디컬 마켓』, published in 2019 (published by 부키, translated by 박기영) [4]. In 2020, in a video-call interview with the IT news outlet IT조선 (IT Chosun), he explained 제곱투표 (quadratic voting) and other ideas [10]. → Radical Markets and Quadratic Voting

Politics casts a shadow

On December 16, 2021, the Presidential Committee on the Fourth Industrial Revolution cancelled, on the day itself, a presentation by Tang scheduled for an international conference in Seoul. According to the Hankyoreh, the reason the committee gave was that it had "양안(중국-대만) 관계의 여러 측면을 고려" (taken into account various aspects of cross-strait (China–Taiwan) relations). Taiwan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned the acting head of Korea's representative office in Taipei to protest [11]. Tang later said in a conversation in Japan that the incident had not changed her relationship with the people of Korea (according to a Yonhap News article) [12].

At the third Summit for Democracy, held in Seoul on March 18, 2024, Tang gave her speech by video. The Hankyoreh reported that the government appears to have chosen not to announce the speech in advance, and to have it given by video rather than in person, out of consideration for a backlash from China [13].

Translation: an official gateway, but no translated text

The book's official guide page (README) has a link to a Korean translation. Since it was first added in February 2024, the link's target has been replaced twice, and since September 2025 it has pointed to an individual's repository (a storage space on GitHub) [14]. That repository calls itself the "공식 한국어 번역 저장소" (official Korean translation repository), and says that a Korean edition is being prepared for publication and that the translation and figures are to be released under CC0 (a form anyone can use freely). As of October 2026, however, it contains no translated text [14].

As a translation of every chapter into Korean, a machine translation made with OpenAI's Codex exists in another repository. It states clearly that it has not been checked by human eyes and is not an official translation [2]. Searching Korea's major online bookshops, 알라딘 (Aladin) turns up only the English original, and 예스24 (Yes24) has no matching result [1]. → Editions and translations of the book

Points of contact with Korea's institutions

Korea has experience that overlaps with the deliberation and citizen participation the book discusses. In 2017, about 200,000 people submitted a total of 118,705 proposals to "광화문1번가" (Gwanghwamun 1st Street), the government's platform for policy proposals [15]. In August of the same year, "청와대 국민청원" (Blue House National Petitions), the presidential office's online petition site, began (it was abolished in May 2022) [16]. Also in 2017, a "public deliberation" (공론화) was held in which a citizens' panel of 500 deliberated on whether to continue building the 신고리 5·6호기 (Shin Kori units 5 and 6) nuclear power plant [17].

At the June 2025 forum, Cho Seung-rae (조승래), a legislator serving as spokesperson for the State Affairs Planning Committee of the Lee Jae-myung government, said that a "국민주권위원회" (National Sovereignty Committee) would be created, and that citizen participation in a variety of ways using AI was being considered [6].

Back and forth with Japan

Korean media have also reported on developments in Japan. In an October 2025 interview with the Hankyoreh, Tang said that Takahiro Anno of Team Mirai had apparently read "내가 쓴 책인 ‘다원성’" (the book I wrote, Plurality) and then entered politics. Here 『다원성』 means Plurality [18].

In May 2026, Lee Jun-seok (이준석), leader of the Reform Party, met Anno [19]. In their conversation, Anno raised the point that very little information reaches legislators after a person casts a vote in an election, as something Tang often says too [20]. In July of the same year, a study group from Seoul National University met in Tokyo with DD2030, a civic technology group [21]. → Team Mirai, Digital Democracy 2030 and Plurality in Japan

Gaps are visible too

The government's "AI민주정부" (AI democratic government) strategy puts administrative services in front, such as 24-hour AI consultation and an AI national secretary [22]. In contrast, 권오현 (Kwon O-hyun), chair of 빠띠 (Parti), a social cooperative that has run spaces for citizen participation, called for "민주적 에이아이" (democratic AI), which would create a seat for citizens within AI governance (the running and control of AI) and treat AI as a public good [23].

What is debated

Criticism of the deliberative institutions (not of the book). In an essay in Pressian, 김정인 (Kim Jeong-in), a professor at Chuncheon National University of Education, pointed out that the public deliberation on 신고리 5·6호기 had the limitation that only a little over a month was available for learning and discussion. The essay also argues that representativeness that mirrors the makeup of the population does not by itself guarantee social representativeness [17]. A column in the Kyunghyang Shinmun took issue with public deliberations that keep asking public opinion again until the desired answer comes out, calling them "답정너" (the answer is decided; you just say it) [24].
Divided views of 『래디컬 마켓』. An IT조선 article reports that views are sharply divided on the "공동소유 자기평가세" (common-ownership self-assessed tax), in which you set your own price and pay tax on it [10].
The results of participation disappear. A contribution to OhmyNews pointed to "모두의 광장" (Everyone's Square), a participation platform that drew attention, stopping when the State Affairs Planning Committee was dissolved, and criticized the repeated pattern of the results of participation vanishing without leading to policy [25].
A tug of war between AI and deliberation. At the 2026 East Asia Civil Society Conference, a speaker presenting from Team Mirai said that in decision-making using AI there are trade-offs among the legitimacy of a policy, the quality of a decision and speed. The speaker also said that on issues where values clash, AI will not find an answer that is good for everyone [23].
Readers' skepticism. A blogger who read the book in a reading group wrote that although Web3 speaks of dividing power, it still seems often to return the say to those who hold technology and capital first. This blog, however, treats the book as told by Tang and Vitalik Buterin, mistaking who its co-author is [26].

Common misunderstandings

That there is a Korean edition. The Korean repository reached from the official guide contains no translated text, and no commercial edition can be confirmed. The only Korean translation of every chapter is an unofficial machine translation [14][2].

Where it fits in Plurality

The book does not take Korea as a main subject. Chapter 3-3 of the English edition, "The Lost Dao", lists countries other than Taiwan that excel in elements of ⿻, and mentions Korea in a single sentence: "South Korea has invested extensively in both digital services and digital competence education." [27] Chapter 6-5, "Learning", cites 2022 reports of international studies of student achievement and names South Korea as one of the countries that improved against the trend during the pandemic [28].

The way the book is discussed in Korea gathers around the book's accounts of Taiwan's digital democracy and vTaiwan, and around Quadratic Voting from Radical Markets onwards. The kind of path seen in Japan, from a volunteer translation community to publication and on to a political party's policies, is not yet visible in Korea.

Articles on other countries and regions:

Sources

Search on 알라딘 (Aladin) for "플루럴리티" (2026-10-02) — https://www.aladin.co.kr/search/wsearchresult.aspx?SearchTarget=Book&SearchWord=%ED%94%8C%EB%A3%A8%EB%9F%B4%EB%A6%AC%ED%8B%B0
ynginkim/plurality-ko-codex (unofficial machine translation) — https://github.com/ynginkim/plurality-ko-codex
Asia Today, "AI 시대, 특이점이 아닌 ‘다원성의 시대’ 다가온다고 말해야" (In the AI era, we should say an age of plurality, not the singularity, is coming) (2024-09-11, in Korean) — https://www.asiatoday.co.kr/kn/view.php?key=20240911010007744
알라딘 (Aladin), catalog record for 『래디컬 마켓』 (in Korean) — https://www.aladin.co.kr/shop/wproduct.aspx?ItemId=209332518
OhmyNews, interview with Tang (2017, in Korean) — https://www.ohmynews.com/NWS_Web/View/at_pg.aspx?CNTN_CD=A0002316156
이로운넷 (Eroun Net), article on 사람과디지털포럼 (2025-06-26, in Korean) — https://www.eroun.net/news/articleView.html?idxno=58605
JoongAng Ilbo, article on the South Gyeongsang Province forum (2020, in Korean) — https://www.joongang.co.kr/article/23887348
OhmyNews, article on Taiwan's digital social innovation (2020, in Korean) — https://www.ohmynews.com/NWS_Web/View/at_pg.aspx?CNTN_CD=A0002684921
한국강사신문 (Korea Lecturer News), article on EBS 『위대한 수업』 (2023, in Korean) — https://www.lecturernews.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=127975
IT조선 (IT Chosun), interview with Weyl (2020, in Korean) — https://it.chosun.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=2020070301621
Hankyoreh, "한국, 탕펑 대만 정무위원 발표 취소…외교 결례 논란" (Korea cancels presentation by Taiwan's minister Tang; controversy over diplomatic discourtesy) (2021, in Korean) — https://www.hani.co.kr/arti/international/china/1024171.html
Yonhap News, "한국 연설 취소된 대만 장관 "한국인과의 관계에 영향 없다"" (Taiwanese minister whose Korea speech was cancelled: "no effect on relationship with Koreans") (2022, in Korean) — https://www.yna.co.kr/view/AKR20220116015000073
Hankyoreh, "대만, 서울서 열린 민주주의정상회의에 화상 연설…중국 반발" (Taiwan gives video speech at Summit for Democracy in Seoul; China objects) (2024-03, in Korean) — https://www.hani.co.kr/arti/politics/politics_general/1132832.html
PR #1097 in the book's repository, and the Korean translation repository — https://github.com/pluralitybook/plurality/pull/1097 / https://github.com/hwnprc/plurality-korean
Korean Wikipedia, "광화문1번가" — https://ko.wikipedia.org/wiki/%EA%B4%91%ED%99%94%EB%AC%B81%EB%B2%88%EA%B0%80 ［CC BY-SA 4.0］
Korean Wikipedia, "청와대 국민청원" — https://ko.wikipedia.org/wiki/%EC%B2%AD%EC%99%80%EB%8C%80_%EA%B5%AD%EB%AF%BC%EC%B2%AD%EC%9B%90 ［CC BY-SA 4.0］
김정인 (Kim Jeong-in), essay (Pressian, 2026-09-27, in Korean) — https://www.pressian.com/pages/articles/2026092314572957576
Hankyoreh, "가짜정보 속도보다 해명이 더 빨라야…2·2·2원칙 중요" (Corrections must be faster than disinformation; the 2-2-2 principle matters) (2025-10-01, in Korean) — https://www.hani.co.kr/arti/society/society_general/1221666.html
Kyunghyang Shinmun, "이준석, 일본 ‘테크 정당’ 팀미라이 대표 만났다" (Lee Jun-seok meets the leader of Japan's "tech party" Team Mirai) (2026-05, in Korean) — https://www.khan.co.kr/article/202605291503001
동행미디어 시대, special conversation between Anno and Lee Jun-seok (2026-05, in Korean) — https://www.sidae.com/article/2026052709243067747
Seoul National University, article on the study group (2026, in Korean) — https://www.snu.ac.kr/snunow/snu_story?md=v&bbsidx=174815
Korea Policy Briefing (대한민국 정책브리핑), "'AI민주정부' 본격 추진" (Full-scale push for an "AI democratic government") (2026, in Korean) — https://www.korea.kr/news/policyNewsView.do?newsId=148970591
Hankyoreh, article on the 2026 East Asia Civil Society Conference (in Korean) — https://www.hani.co.kr/arti/economy/it/1273845.html
Kyunghyang Shinmun, column "‘답정너’ 공론화도 민주주의인가" (Is a predetermined-answer public deliberation democracy too?) (2026-09, in Korean) — https://www.khan.co.kr/article/202609132002025
OhmyNews, contribution (2025, in Korean) — https://www.ohmynews.com/NWS_Web/View/at_pg.aspx?CNTN_CD=A0003193584
Personal blog reading record (Naver, 2025, in Korean) — https://blog.naver.com/katie_booktiful/224129685556
Plurality, 3-3 "The Lost Dao" — https://www.plurality.net/v/chapters/3-3/eng/ ［CC0］
Plurality, 6-5 "Learning" — https://www.plurality.net/v/chapters/6-5/eng/ ［CC0］

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