With the continued economic development of China, there should be more signs of attraction to democracy or values considered democratic as a result. Nathan and Shi have found that the perceived impact of government varies substantially with the level of education. They suggest that the level of political tolerance is likely to increase as older less-educated people are replaced by younger, better educated people.
They conclude that Chinese political culture will move closer to the patterns characteristic of democratic countries as the economy grows In a more recent study, Shi also finds that higher levels of education and income play a significant role in making people transcend their traditional culture. People with higher education and income not only tend to perceive their relationship with authority as reciprocal but are also more willing to enter into conflict with others to assert their interests After presenting the fact that well-educated and wealthy Chinese people are more likely to possess democratic values, Chu and Chang conclude: All these studies suggest that well-educated, urban and wealthy people have a relatively stronger orientation towards democratic values than the rest of Chinese.
On the other hand, the multivariable analysis offered by Dowd and his associates finds the opposite direction between education and political democracy, and between income and political democracy. For Lipset, the middle class is the friend of democracy Glassman and Huntington both recognise that middle class has particular affinities with democracy In our study we consider middle class as comprised mainly of managerial personnel, private entrepreneurs, professionals, civil servants, and getihu This social class owns most of the economic and cultural capital, and limited political capital.
We have chosen occupation as the main criteria to determine position in the social space because it ties together the three dimensions: It is difficult to evaluate precisely the degree of support for democratic values among the middle class. Since middle class engenders a high level of education and income, we would expect it to hold a higher level of democratic beliefs.
Democratizing China
However, such extrapolation is impossible Collier, Rueschemeyer and the Stephens emphasise the importance of the working class in the process of democratisation instead of political elites It is the working class that fights for democracy while the bourgeoisie and urban middle class, that benefited from the status quo, nearly without exception, resist democracy, once their own interests are secured However, even though rising worker discontent is visible, the likelihood of mass mobilisation of workers against the state appears low Inglehart and his associates, as well as Dalton and Shin report this finding The percentage of DK responses for both questions was If we treat DK responses as a valid and separate answer, the statistical result is quite different: These figures reveal a higher level of democratic orientation than existing literature suggests.
No wonder then that respondents showed a high level of affective and evaluative support for democracy—Chen and Zhong reported a similar outcome even though their measurement did not cover support of norms of democracy Thus, when Chinese citizens express support for democracy it may be that support is for a meaning different to that understood by a citizen of an established, advanced industrial democracy In the Chinese context, DK can be interpreted in three different ways.
Some respondents were unable to answer the question due to lack of political knowledge. Others have some knowledge about democracy and its performance, but no clear-cut idea about the meaning of support of democracy. The third sort of DK is not truly a DK. Under a Communist authoritarian regime, outright support of democracy is still believed to involve political risk. Thus, even though supporters of democracy, these respondents would have withheld their true opinion through caution. However, one can assume that 46 the first type of DK is associated with less income, education and older age.
As members of the working class tend to be less educated and less wealthy, it is assumed that most of the responses given by the respondents in this group were of the first type. The DK responses of younger, wealthier and better educated respondent were of the second and third types. While they have the political knowledge to decide their support of democracy, they may refuse to answer due to the consideration of potential political risk. They may also feel somewhat ambivalent, perhaps worrying that the Chinese path to democracy would engender political instability which could endanger their economic well-being.
Thus we considered most of the middle class DK responses to belong to the second and third type of DK.
The respondents are divided into three age cohorts years old, years old, and over 50 , and into three categories of monthly income less than yuan to 4, yuan; 4, to 10, yuan; 10, to more than , yuan. The education variable is recoded into three categories: It suggests the following conclusions.
First, age is negatively associated with acceptance of democratic principles.
Presentation
It does support the generational-replacement theory. Second, the hypothesis that the Chinese middle class has elective affinities of democracy is supported. Third, when compared with the middle class, the working class has a lower level of affective support of democracy. Four, those with lower incomes have a lower level of affective support for democratic principles. Finally, those with a lower level of education have a lower level of affective support for democratic principles than those with a higher level of education.
Affective support of democracy and socio-economic variables. First, age is negatively associated with evaluative support of democratic principles. Skip to main content. Journal of Asian and African Studies.
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It's naked self-interest, stupid.
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- Democratic Values Among Chinese People.
- Explaining Chinese democratization / Shaohua Hu - Details - Trove.
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Vol 38, Issue , Tips on citation download. Chu, Chi-hung , and John Fuh-sheng Hsieh. Diamond, Larry and Ramon H. Elections and Democracy in Greater China. Democratization in China and Taiwan: The Adaptability of Leninist Parties. Some analysts believe that the Chinese people tolerate corruption in exchange for fast growth. This is a bit like saying that New Yorkers tolerated Hurricane Sandy. The Chinese government today spends more on maintaining domestic stability than on its military. But this funding formula will crumble once the growth slows down. No country in the world is able to maintain genuine social stability through repression alone.
Real stability comes from a sense of involvement in the political and civic affairs and decisions and from a wide consensus about how economic, social, and political opportunities and outcomes are and should be distributed in a society. In a word, democracy. For China to open up politically, however its elites have to believe that it is in their interest to do so which, indeed, it is.
The West could start by pointing out how the rigged Chinese justice system is a danger even to the powerful.
Explaining Chinese Democratization by Shaohua Hu - Praeger - ABC-CLIO
This year, in an August show trial that lasted just one day, Gu was given a commuted death sentence for the murder of a British businessman. In the past two decades, the party secretaries in three out of four most important local governments in China Beijing, Shanghai, and Chongqing have been toppled or jailed. Between and , there have been six heads of the Communist Party. Liu Shaoqi was tortured to death and buried with a fake name, Lin Biao in a fiery plane crash when he tried to escape to the Soviet Union.
The history of the Chinese Communist Party is littered with violence and arbitrary justice meted out against its own kind.
The Key to Bringing Democracy to China
Chinese political elites implicitly understand that democracies provide security of property and of persons. There is no other way. Trending Now Sponsored Links by Taboola. Sign up for free access to 3 articles per month and weekly email updates from expert policy analysts. Create a Foreign Policy account to access 3 articles per month and free newsletters developed by policy experts.
By Yasheng Huang November 19, , 9: