1. 1 Lecture 19: Political Culture in China SOSC 152

2. 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. 3 Three views of Chinese Political Culture a.System-wide characterization or “culturalist approach” 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. 4 a. System-wide characterization or “culturalist approach” towards China’s political culture RESULTS Popular demands for participation should be quite low; elites, therefore, not pressed to respond to social demands. Assumed comfort with authoritarian rule China unable to establish modern political institutions, particularly democracy Elite prone to mistrust, court politics, conflict and factionalism This approach highly susceptible to “ reductionism ”

5. 5 b. Political Culture Determined by Organizational 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. 6 c. Popular political behavior seen as result of measurable political attitudes Culture as an empirical factor affecting behaviour — easily measured through surveys.

7. 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. 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

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10. 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. 11 The distribution of Democratic values in rural China, 1999

12. 12 Businessmen strategies to deal with government can vary across cities

13. 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. 14 Question: “If the villages economy experiences stable development, we do not need to raise the level of democracy.” Completely agree6.6% Relatively agree14.4% Not so agree 32.3% Totally disagree33.1%

15. 15 Question: “If villagers disagree with local policy, they have the right to petition to upper levels.” Completely agree 41.1% Relatively agree40.3% Not so agree 6.4% Totally disagree 2.4%

16. 16 Table 1: Frequency of Discussions on Economic or Political Issues in Three Chinese Societies Taiwan, 1991-1997 a Hong Kong, 1996- 1998Rural China, 1999 Often14.311.7 b 15.5 Sometimes29.762.4 c 37.2 Not often or very little35.8 27.6 Never19.426.014.5 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.