Levels of Political Interest

Abstract

This chapter measures the levels of political interest among Chinese urban residents and examines the associated factors. The key descriptive question to be answered in this chapter is: To what degree are Chinese urban residents still interested in politics or state affairs? On an analytical level, the chapter considers the factors affecting Chinese urban residents’ levels of political interest. Other than the usual socioeconomic and demographic factors such as age, gender, income, education and Communist Party membership, the study is especially interested in exploring the relationships between levels of political interest on the one hand and belief in religion, support for the current political system, democratic values, nationalist feelings and general life satisfaction on the other. Even though this study does not cover the whole of China, the findings from this research do shed light on the general levels of political interest at the mass level and who tend to be more interested in politics.