How do Governments Lose Legitimacy Among young People? — A Case Study of University Students in the Gwangju Uprising in the 1980s

In the late 1970s, South Korea's rapid economic growth was accompanied by growing social stratification, putting the "performance legitimacy" of its traditional authoritarian regime under strain. This article takes the 1980 Gwangju Democratic Uprising as its starting point to examine how youth groups emerged as challengers to the political legitimacy of South Korea's authoritarian government. Drawing on historical documents and third-party archival summaries, this study uses case study analysis and incorporates Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory to analyze how economic inequality and campus mobilization mechanisms amid expanding higher education reshaped young people's demands. The research demonstrates that the upgrading of youth aspirations, combined with the expansion of higher education, which facilitated organized mobilization among low-income groups such as workers and farmers—facilitated by the expansion of higher education, jointly undermined the economic foundations of authoritarian rule. These findings offer significant insights into the structural origins of contemporary social movements.