A Comparison of Institutional Confidence in China and Taiwan

Abstract

Employing 2006-2007 World Values Survey data, this paper analyzes citizens’ trust in institutions, and to unravel how diverse factors might affect people’s institutional confidence in China and Taiwan. The empirical results reveal that Chinese have higher degrees of trust toward both public and private institutions. Additionally, Chinese have higher confidence in public institutions than in private institutions, whereas Taiwanese prefer to trust private institutions rather than public ones. We also find that Chinese confidence in public institutions is associated with younger generation, better education, Post-Materialism, life satisfaction, democratic evaluation, interpersonal trust, and associational engagement; moreover, their trust in civil institutions is generated by democratic evaluation, interpersonal trust, and associational engagement. In Taiwan, citizens’ confidence in public and civil institutions derive mainly from four sources- life satisfaction, democratic evaluation, interpersonal trust, and associational engagement. Otherwise, younger generations in Taiwan are more likely to trust in civil institutions. The conclusion indicates that the Chinese government’s basis for legitimacy has switched from economic prosperity to democracy, and the state may face serious challenges from emerging critical citizens in the near future.