Paradox in Political Participation and Economic Development—A Study of Congressional Voting in Urban China in 1993 and 2002

Abstract

This paper is interested in the decline of congressional voting in urban China. Classic studies in comparative politics long argue that with economic development, countries would experience increased level of political participation. Employing the 1993 Social Mobility and Social Change Survey and 2002 Asian Barometer Survey, I found congressional voting in urban China declined substantially in the past decade. With the analyses of the Probit Model and Generalized Linear Model, I contributed this decline to the disappearance of sociopolitical institutions that used to serve critical conduits for citizens' participation. I argue that although economic development produces more resources to encourage participation, overall political participation actually declines in urban China and the public opts to withdraw from politics. This paper is interested in political participation in urban China. The puzzle that this paper intends to solve is the decline of political participation in the rapid economic development in urban China during the past decade.With steady and accelerating economic development, scholars in comparative politics argue that states will usually experience political liberalization and subsequently increasing political participation. With sufficient economic development, it is expected that citizens are likely to possess more resources to participate in politics, and the state is more likely to accommodate increasing level of participation from citizens in order to adapt to the emerging social cleavages in the society. As argued by Lipset, "perhaps the