Global economic influence and domestic regime support: evidence from China

Abstract

Rising powers typically seek to play a larger role in international economic affairs, but we know little about the impact of this overseas expansion on domestic publics. This paper examines the domestic political consequences of rising states’ efforts to increase their foreign economic influence. We argue that public approval for these governments depends on whether they succeed or fail to expand their country’s global economic influence. To test this argument, we fielded three survey experiments in China, each focusing on a different component of China’s foreign economic strategy. In all three experiments, informing individuals that China has failed in increasing its role in the global economy reduced average levels of government satisfaction. Our evidence suggests that this drop in government approval operates through a weakened sense of national pride, rather than other channels based on economic prospects.