1

Lecture 19: Political Culture in China

SOSC 152

2

Defining Political Culture“A particular distribution of political attitudes, values, feelings, information, and skills that affects the behaviour of a nation’s citizens and leaders throughout the political system.”what people know or feel about their political system affects their behaviour towards it.variations among countries can be measured through surveys.

3

Three views of Chinese Political Culture

a.a. System-wide characterization or “culturalist System-wide characterization or “culturalist approach” towards China’s political cultureapproach” towards China’s political culture

Chinese culture as passive political culture

Based on peasant, traditional, and Confucian cultures which accept hierarchy, respect for political authority

Also result of patterns of child-rearing—after years of protection, children forced out into world—leads to mistrust and anxiety.

4

a. System-wide characterization or “culturalist apa. System-wide characterization or “culturalist approach” towards China’s political cultureproach” towards China’s political culture

RESULTSPopular demands for participation should be quite low; elites, therefore, not pressed to respond to social demands.Assumed comfort with authoritarian ruleChina unable to establish modern political institutions, particularly democracyElite prone to mistrust, court politics, conflict and factionalismThis approach highly susceptible to “reductionism”

5

b. Political Culture Determined by Organizationab. Political Culture Determined by Organizational Structuresl Structures

rules and incentives established in organizations determine how people behave

Shirk and high school students – virtuocracy and competition to be seen as virtuous

Highly related to “new institutionalism” in political science

Affects what institutions are established

6

c. Popular political behavior seen as result c. Popular political behavior seen as result of measurable political attitudesof measurable political attitudes

Culture as an empirical factor affecting behaviour—easily measured through surveys.

7

Culture as a Characteristic of an entire society

Some values do vary across countries and can be applied to specific societies.Example of Chinese less willing to speak out in public settings or accept public display of conflict.But attitudes may be result of education levels as well, China has many uneducated people, therefore a more “subject” political culture.

8

Assumptions about Chinese Political Culture

• Long-term assumption that Chinese political culture is passive—deference to authority under Confucianism

• Chinese will accept a great deal of oppression before they react.

• Chinese only concerned about wealth—can be bought off by increases in standard of living

• Deference to authority varies with education.• Recent data suggest that Chinese society not

passive

9

Democratic Idea by Perceived Level of Wealth

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

lower lower-middle middle upper-middle upper

Perceived Level of Wealth

Perc

enta

ge Not democratic

A bit democratic

Democratic

Very democratic

10

Cross-national Tolerance for Speaking at Meetings

highly affected by level of education

Source: Andrew J. Nathan and Tianjian Shi, in

“Requisites of Democracy,” Daedalus.

11

The distribution of Democratic values in rural China, 1999

12

Businessmen strategies to deal with government can vary across cities

13

Villagers Not Passive!

• We asked villagers if they had tried to solve a problem in their village over past 10 years

• of 2637 villagers who were asked to outline a major problem in their village, 16.7% had tried to solve them.

14

Question: “If the villages economy experiences stable development, we do not need to raise the level of democracy.”

Completely agree 6.6%

Relatively agree 14.4%

Not so agree 32.3%

Totally disagree 33.1%

15

Question: “If villagers disagree with local policy, they have the right to petition to upper levels.”

Completely agree 41.1%

Relatively agree 40.3%

Not so agree 6.4%

Totally disagree 2.4%

16

Table 1: Frequency of Discussions on Economic or Political Issues in Three Chinese Societies

  Taiwan, 1991-1997a

Hong Kong, 1996-1998 Rural China, 1999  

Often 14.3 11.7b 15.5  

Sometimes 29.7 62.4c 37.2  

Not often or very little 35.8   27.6  

Never 19.4 26.0 14.5  

Note: a I have data for six years from 1991 to 1997, so I took the average score for those years.

b There was a very significant upward trend in people choosing "often" with 8.6% in 1996,

10.6% in 1997 and 15.8% in 1998. I report here only the average for the three years.

c In the Hong Kong survey, they used a three point (rather than four point) scale.