As the demonstrations against President Park Geun-hye built up, foreigner observers were impressed by the level of civility in crowds so large. Violent incidents were rare, shops were not looted, and the trash was picked up. The crowds, numbering over 1 million at times in Gwanghwamun, sang and chanted peacefully. The crowds included families with children and high school students in uniform as well as the predictable activist groups.

On Dec. 9, the National Assembly followed through on its threat to impeach the president. The vote, 234 of lawmakers, or 78 percent, in favor of impeachment, closely mirrored opinion polls that showed about 80 percent of the people wanting the president to retire now. The matter is now in the hands of the Constitutional Court which will decide the president’s fate.

The Constitutional Court will focus on the details and legality of the charges against the president, but the candlelight demonstrations and the overwhelming majority that wants Park impeached are thinking in the broadest of terms. To them, the president is an incompetent national embarrassment who should leave office so that the country can choose a new leader.

The nation now enters a period of uncertainty while the Constitutional Court does its business. The unelected prime minister is now acting president. Politicians jockeying to be the next president are no longer united by the goal of pushing impeachment through the National Assembly, which has caused them to start quarreling among themselves.

There is quiet but growing concern that the uncertainty will begin to affect the economy and national security.

Politics is difficult to understand because it is about a complex web of images, emotions, and self-interest. This web works in various ways to motivate people to make statements, either through voting or, as we have seen recently, by participating actively in a movement. Politicians who understand how image, emotion and self-interest work together usually win elections. This is as true in Korea as it is elsewhere.

Image and emotions were clearly driving the impeachment vote. The expression of emotion in the form of candlelight protests is different from, say, Britain’s vote to leave the EU or the election of Donald Trump. The important question is what triggered an emotional reaction that was strong enough to push a president toward impeachment.

This is where image comes in. Koreans want their country to be a “good country” with “good” being defined as prosperous and democratic like other major democracies. This is a powerful idea that comes to the fore frequently in Korean politics. Historically, conservative groups have put priority on prosperity, whereas progressive groups have emphasized the need for democracy. Since democratization in 1987, voters have punished both groups when they move too far in one direction because that threatens progress toward becoming a good country.

The emotional reaction against Park comes from a gut reaction that her incompetence is threatening the good country image in its entirety.

Her cool, authoritarian tone and suppression of opposing views is viewed as a threat to democracy. Her incompetence in carrying out the daily tasks of a president amid a lackluster economy is viewed as a threat to prosperity. No Korean president since 1987 has faced such a loss of confidence in both measures. This explains why her popularity hit a historic low of 4 percent and why the National Assembly voted 78 percent in favor of impeachment.

None of this means, of course, that national security is not important. It sits in the background, almost at a subconscious level. Direct threats to national security stir national unity as they do elsewhere, but the days when dictators could throw political opponents in jail are long gone. Most Koreans believe that becoming a good country enhances national security.

In democracies, self-interest often centers on economic issues. The high percentage of self-employed people in Korea is key to understanding self-interest. In 2013, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development figures showed that 27.4 percent of the workforce in Korea was self-employed, making it the fourth highest in the organization. By contrast, only 11.5 percent in Japan and 6.6 percent in the US were self-employed.

Most of the self-employed run the many small shops and eating establishments that make up the cityscape. To survive, they need customers. Many businesses run on thin margins, making them sensitive to economic downturns. They want to live in a “good country,” but the voice of self-interest focuses their attention on prosperity.

All of this means that Korean society will remain stable during this period of uncertainty. The politically motivated will continue to demonstrate and there will be noise all around, but the center will hold. And when it’s all over, Koreans will look to the future, pushing to create a good country they can be proud of.

By Robert J. Fouser

Robert J. Fouser, a former associate professor of Korean language education at Seoul National University, writes on Korea from Ann Arbor, Michigan. He can be reached at kagoshimabob@gmail.com. -- Ed.