WHAT SUSTAINS AUTHORITARIANISM? FROM STATE‐BASED HEGEMONY TO CLASS‐BASED HEGEMONY DURING THE PARK CHUNG HEE REGIME IN SOUTH KOREA

Abstract

The long‐standing stability of the Park Chung Hee regime (1961–1979) in South Korea rests on the construction of political consent through appeasing the middle classes at the expense of the working class. In the 1960s, both working class and middle class were the beneficiaries of a rapid economic developmental project and hegemony was formed corresponding to the rapid expansion of the entire economy. In the 1970s when income disparity deepened and political repression grew severe, however, we witnessed divergent reactions to the state between middle and working class. While the working class began to challenge state policy, the urban middle class tacitly supported the Park regime and remained indifferent towards the opposition movement. Even when antiregime worker mobilization intensified, the urban middle class opted for the status quo, aligning itself with state ideology. Working‐class exclusion and middle‐class inclusion constituted the central mechanism for the generation of regime hegemony that blocked democratization.