Looking forward and looking backward: Economic evaluations and regime support in China

The British Journal of Politics and International Relations

2022

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How citizens in authoritarian regimes evaluate the practice of democracy in both new and established democracies has important implications on the prospect of democratisation in their own country. As an authoritarian country with the largest population around the world, China has resisted waves of democratisation and maintains the one-party rule. This study examined the Chinese case and explored how Chinese citizens evaluated democracy in the United States, India and Taiwan. It theorised that the tendency towards ingroup favouritism and attitudes towards democracy are the factors that primarily influence citizens’ evaluations of democracy in other countries. The results show that Chinese citizens perceive the democratic level of China as being as high as that of the United States and Taiwan, whereas they gave lower evaluations in the case of India’s democracy. The effects of the aforementioned factors varied between the three countries. After presenting the findings, the theoretical implications are also discussed.

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: General Tendencies Of Ingroup Favouritismmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pride and prejudice: Chinese citizens’ evaluations of democracy in the United States, India and Taiwan

The British Journal of Politics and International Relations

2022

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“…The rising income inequality is not only manifested in objective statistics like the Gini coefficient, but it is also perceived by the masses. Not just the national economy, but individual income also exerts an influence on citizens’ attitudes toward politics (Hutchison and Xu, 2017; Ou-Yang and Zhou, 2019; Zhai, 2021a).…”

Section: Religion Tolerance For Economic Inequality and Political Trustmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Previously, the claims that the Chinese public tolerates income disparity dominated the field, which indicated that income inequality is not a 'social volcano' in China (Whyte, 2010;Whyte and Guo, 2009;Wu, 2009). However, recent studies challenge conventional wisdom and provide new evidence for the public's critical attitudes toward income inequality (Lei, 2020;Li et al, 2019;Zhai, 2021a).…”

Section: Economic Inequality and Political Trustmentioning

confidence: 99%

Is religion the ‘opiate of the masses’? Religion and political trust in China

2021

Current Sociology

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The past few decades have witnessed a radical religious revival in China, where economic inequality has been sharply increasing as well. This study examines the impact of religion on the Chinese public’s perceptions of income disparity and political trust. The findings show that there is a significant difference in the perceived fairness of personal income distribution between religious and non-religious people. As the opiate thesis on religion predicts, religious beliefs are positively associated with a high level of perceived fairness about personal and national income distribution. Such perceptions of fairness contribute to fostering citizens’ trust in both political institutions and government officials. However, contrary to the opiate thesis, religious beliefs are negatively associated with institutional trust. Moreover, religious beliefs offset the positive effect of the perceived fairness of income distribution on institutional trust. Hence, when income distribution is perceived to be unfair, institutional trust declines more drastically among religious believers than among their non-religious counterparts.

“…This principle can also be applied to authoritarian systems. Empirical studies have found that the performance of China's government in promoting economic growth bolsters public trust (Chen 2004;Lewis-Beck, Tang and Martini 2014;Tang 2005Tang , 2016Zhai 2016Zhai , 2021. However, existing literature excessively stresses the positive effects of economic performance on the public's trust in government.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Government policy performance and central–local political trust in China

2022

J. Pub. Pol.

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It is widely acknowledged that poor government policy performance undermines public trust in government. However, there has been insufficient study of how citizens attribute responsibility to different levels of government within an authoritarian unitary context. Inquiry is needed to assess the ways government performance in various policy domains affects central–local political trust. This study uses the case of China to addresses these questions. Results show that, in particular, local governments risk losing public trust for corruption. Nevertheless, the central government loses public trust due to unsatisfying economies. Both local and central governments lose public trust for poor performance regarding environmental protection, food safety problems, public health, and primary/middle school education. The central government cannot always avoid blame, depending on different policy issues. The results indicate that the perceived administrative responsibility of different levels of government affects citizens’ evaluations of the performance of the central and local governments as well as their political trust.