Social Class and Voter Turnout in China

Abstract

In research on China’s state-controlled elections, whether pro-democratic and politically efficacious citizens vote or abstain more has dominated the debate. Analyzing an up-to-date data set, we find class status and citizens’ institutional environment command overwhelming power in determining voter turnout, while psychological and motivational variables show no significant impacts. Specifically, members of the middle class employed in the state sector are more likely to vote than other social groups, while their counterparts in the private and foreign sectors are far less inclined to vote. While in general, citizens show relatively high level of support for the regime, except among the state-employed middle class, this support is not translated into a higher turnout rate. Electoral behaviors of Chinese citizens, therefore, are heavily conditioned by an individual social group’s particular relation with the state. Members of the Communist Party turn out to vote no more than other members of the society, revealing a critical institutional failure the system faces.