Sociopolitical Attitudes of the Masses and Leaders in the Chinese Village: attitude congruence and constraint

Abstract

Do ordinary villagers and cadres in the Chinese village share similar attitudes toward major sociopolitical issues? Do these two groups construct their respective attitudes in a similar way? This article addresses these two crucial questions based on the data collected from both villager and cadre surveys in a rural setting. The findings indicate that (1) villagers and cadres had quite different views of the village socioeconomic conditions, the legitimacy of CCP rule, democratic principles, and the effects of post-Mao reforms as a whole, although they did have similar opinions on the role of the individual; (2) these two groups constructed their views on some issues similarly but on others differently; and (3) the relevance and salience of issues were positively associated with the levels of attitude consistency among both cadres and villagers. These findings have strong implications not only for the ongoing interaction between these two sets of political players, but also for sociopolitical stability in rural China.