The Understandings of Democracy, Commitment to Democracy, and Opinions about the Government among China's People

Yue Yin

《Taiwan Journal of Democracy》 14卷2期 (2018/12) Pp. 143-171

摘要

Based on an open-ended question about the understanding of democracy in the East Asian Barometer surveys, this essay begins by exploring the perceptions of the concept of democracy held by Chinese people. It then examines the effects of different understandings and perceptions of democracy on people's level of commitment to it. Multivariate analyses were conducted to further explore the effects of understandings of and commitment to democracy on institutional trust and regime support in China. There are three main findings. First, ＂direct democracy with Chinese characteristics＂ occupies an important and independent position in public perceptions of democracy in China, which reveals the limitation in using the binary categories ＂guardianship＂ vs. ＂liberal democracy＂ to explore what is on the minds of Chinese citizens when they think about democracy. Second, this study confirms that deviation from a liberal and procedural understanding of democracy corresponds with weakened commitment to democracy, elections, freedom of speech, and the rule of law, and strengthens tolerance of authoritarian rule and censorship of speech. Finally, people who adopt the communist understanding of democracy that is endorsed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) express higher levels of political trust and regime support than their counterparts. These findings help explain popular support for the authoritarian regime in China.

關鍵字

China ； commitment to democracy ； public support for the government ； understanding of democracy

參考文獻

Lu, Jie(2012).Democratic Conceptions and Regime Support among Chinese Citizens.,::Asian Barometer: A Comparative Survey of Democracy, Governance, and Globalbarometer.

Lu, Jie(2013).Democratic Conceptions in East Asian Societies: A Contextualized Analysis.Taiwan Journal of Democracy.9(1),117-145.

Lu, Jie,Shi, Tianjian(2015).The Battle of Ideas and Discourses before Democratic Transition: Different Democratic Conceptions in Authoritarian China.International Political Science Review.36(1),1-22.

Shi, Tianjian(2014).The Cultural Logic of Politics in Mainland China and Taiwan.New York:Cambridge University Press.

Wang, Zhengxu(2007).Public Support for Democracy in China.Journal of Contemporary China.16(53),561-579.