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Abstract
AbstractAutocrats typically seek public support on the basis of economic growth-promotion and redistribution policies, and China is no exception. As important as these factors are for authoritarian resilience, we argue that economic legitimation is a more complex phenomenon than has previously been acknowledged. Beyond improvements in material well-being, citizens form judgements about the state's effectiveness in carrying out a variety of economic roles beyond growth promotion and they also care about the fairness of these market interventions. In this study, we use original survey data collected in late 2015 and early 2016 to evaluate Chinese citizens’ perceptions of two economic roles of the state that have been hotly debated in recent years: state ownership and market regulation. We find that while citizens view the ideas of state ownership and interventionist regulation in a generally positive light, suggesting a broad level of agreement in Chinese society about what economic functions the state ought to perform, perceptions of how the state actually carries out these roles are more mixed. Our results show that the urban young are especially inclined to critical evaluations, raising the question of how the Chinese Communist Party's legitimation strategy will fare under conditions of inter-generational value change.
Highlights
Autocrats typically seek public support on the basis of economic growth-promotion and redistribution policies, and China is no exception. As important as these factors are for authoritarian resilience, we argue that economic legitimation is a more complex phenomenon than has previously been acknowledged
We find that while citizens view the ideas of state ownership and interventionist regulation in a generally positive light, suggesting a broad level of agreement in Chinese society about what economic functions the state ought to perform, perceptions of how the state carries out these roles are more mixed
Our results show that the urban young are especially inclined to critical evaluations, raising the question of how the Chinese Communist Party’s legitimation strategy will fare under conditions of inter-generational value change
Summary
Autocrats typically seek public support on the basis of economic growth-promotion and redistribution policies, and China is no exception. While scholars have previously analysed public perceptions of the state’s economic performances that are most directly tied to individual material well-being, for example growth and redistribution including public goods provision, public attitudes towards these other functions of the Chinese state have yet to be carefully studied Since both the propriety of state ownership and suitable models of market regulation have stirred passionate debate among policy elites in China, we focus on these policy domains and examine the extent to which expert critiques of the so-called “China model” resonate in wider society.. The most recent data find that fully 85 per cent of Chinese respondents report a “great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in government, and this finding of broad public support is supported by a variety of survey-based academic research.11 It bears noting, that preference falsification likely inflates these figures to some degree. The World Values surveys have consistently shown that Chinese citizens have among the highest rates of confidence in their government in the world. The most recent data find that fully 85 per cent of Chinese respondents report a “great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in government, and this finding of broad public support is supported by a variety of survey-based academic research. It bears noting, that preference falsification likely inflates these figures to some degree.
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