AsiaBarometer Survey Data Research Articles

Governance Values and Public Trust in Government: An Exploratory Study of Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand

Since the 1997 Asian financial crisis, special attention has been paid to public management reforms and good governance values in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand. This study analyzes how citizen satisfaction with good governance values, government performance, and empowered citizenship affect public trust in government in these countries. The analysis is based on the Asia Barometer Survey data 2007. The study found that citizens' satisfaction with good governance values and perceived government performance in dealing with the economy and political corruption best explain the variation in trust in government among these countries. The variances in trust in central and local governments in Malaysia and Indonesia are best explained by citizen satisfaction with good governance values. Citizen satisfaction with good governance values is significantly associated with trust in local government only in Thailand. The study also finds that perceived government performance in the economy is significantly associated with trust in central governments in Malaysia and Thailand. Meanwhile, government performance in dealing with political corruption, quality of service, and government officials’ attention to citizen input are positively associated with trust in government in Thailand. Citizens who agree that there is wide spread corruption among those who govern the country expressed a low level of trust in government in Indonesia and Thailand. The study findings support that an approach comparing different countries can enhance our understanding of the complexity of and variations of the factors affecting public trust in government in different civil societies.

Choosing China: public perceptions of ‘China as a model’

This article examines East Asians and Chinese nationals who select ‘China as a model’ of development. The analysis looks at both macro and micro explanations to show that China's standing as a development model is not in sync with its status as a rising global and regional power. At the macro level, the focus is on country-level patterns, while the micro analysis is drawn from the third wave surveys of the Asia Barometer Survey data conducted from 2011 to 2013 in 13 different countries. The findings suggest that political values, history, geography and socio-economic conditions correspond to different views of China as a model and that those outside of China who select the country as a model are quite different from those in China itself.

Who's Afraid of the Dragon? Asian Mass Publics’ Perceptions of China's Influence

AbstractIn what countries and among which individuals in Asia is China's influence seen as least favorable? Drawing upon AsiaBarometer survey data from 12 Asian societies between 2006 and 2008, this study tests a series of hypotheses aimed at identifying those variables that most consistently predict individuals’ perceptions of China. With the exceptions of Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Vietnam, a clear plurality or a majority of respondents in each polity views China's influence positively. Concerns about domestic economic management were most consistently associated with perceptions of China that are more unfavorable, while greater levels of contact with the Chinese film and television culture were consistently associated with perceptions of China that are more favorable. These results suggest that China is more likely to be seen as an economic rather than military threat by Asian publics, and that Asia may prove responsive to a nuanced soft power campaign by Beijing in the future.

Connections, Paperwork or Passivity: Strategies of Popular Engagement with the Chinese Bureaucracy

The low degree of institutionalization of Chinese administration means that citizens engaging with the bureaucracy have a choice of strategies to achieve objectives. This article deploys Asia Barometer survey data from 2006 to construct a predictive model of preferences to obtain a government permit, including use of connections (guanxi), bribery, writing letters, waiting patiently, and the passive-pessimistic response “nothing can be done”. It finds that strategy preference varies according to location (urban or rural interacting with region), socio-economic status, social capital, political values and political performance evaluations. The pattern of determinants shows that Chinese citizens are cross-pressured. The class and gender nature of guanxi and bribery are an obstacle to the creation of a modern Chinese state, but high levels of social trust, support for political freedom, the market and meritocracy combined with the reservoir of trust enjoyed by executive organs present a favourable climate for efforts to improve governance.

Public Attitudes toward Government Spending in the Asia-Pacific Region

AbstractThis article describes public attitudes toward government spending in Australia, China, India, Japan, Russia, and the United States, the six major economies of the Asia-Pacific region. An analysis of the 2008 AsiaBarometer Survey data shows that ordinary citizens of the sample countries favored increased, rather than reduced, government spending on a wide range of policy programs. It is also found that support for state activism was stronger in former state socialist countries than in market capitalist ones. Although economic interests, symbolic predispositions, and social positions influenced spending preferences to varying degrees, left–right ideology was particularly conspicuous in most countries surveyed. It is evident that the mass publics of the major economies of the Asia-Pacific region did not strongly endorse state contraction or retrenchment, even in the wake of economic globalization and the neoliberal reform movement.

Psychometric Approach to Social Capital: Using AsiaBarometer Survey Data in 29 Asian Societies

AbstractThis paper is one of the few attempts made by social scientists to measure social capital via psychometric approach, and is the only one of such kind to base its evidence on the AsiaBarometer survey data. After first reviewing the history of social capital, including its conceptual emergence and recent literatures, we expose the issue of difficulty in the measurement of social capital despite its topical popularity. We tackle this measurement issue by applying psychometric procedures to the AsiaBarometer survey data of 2004, 2005, and 2006, focusing on questions pertaining to social capital of ordinary individuals residing in the 29 survey societies. This paper is significant in two aspects. First, using simple statistical procedures, it extracts various dimensions of social capital without first knowing what dimensions to extract. In short, it does not try to measure social capital using some kind of pre-defined concepts such as those outlined in the historical review of our predecessors. Rather, it succeeds in manifesting key factors of social capital – altruism, utilitarianism, communitarianism, and concordance with prevailing regime – by mechanically processing collective responses by individual respondents towards survey questions oriented with social capital. Though the paper does not aim to establish its methodology as a widely held consensus on how to measure social capital, it does give credence and recognition to psychometric approaches as effectives means to measure social capital, which, by its very definition, calls for ‘objective’ approaches using collective data to measure ‘subjective’ notions of individual actions within networks. Second, this paper is the first systematic empirical analysis of social capital in all the subregions of Asia, i.e. East, Southeast, South, and Central. It builds on our earlier works, including the 2006 paper on social capital in Central and South Asia, and gives empirical credence to important concepts on Asian political culture.

Political Sophistication Among the Mass Publics of Confucian Asia

The concept of “Confucian Asia” is often used without a validity check. But are Asian societies homogeneous in Confucian orientations as the term suggests? If not, how can one explain the variation? By examining the East Asia Barometer survey data, this article challenges the homogeneity of Confucian Asia and finds that Confucian orientations are unevenly distributed even among commonly accepted Confucian societies. In exploring the possible explanations for this Confucian orientation variation, this article argues that political sophistication is the direct mechanism to explain the variation of mass commitment toward Confucianism. By comparing other alternative explanations such as modernization theory, the article finds that the effects of political sophistication are independent and potent.

Legitimacy and effectiveness in Thailand, 2003-2007: perceived quality of governance and its consequences on political beliefs

This article investigates the political attitudes of Thai citizens, who have been exposed to a harsh political climate in recent years. Two questions we address here are: (a) how people perceived the quality of governance under the Thaksin administration and the subsequent provisional military government, and (b) what impacts, if any, the populist style of politics as well as the military coup have had on the political beliefs of the Thai population. The statistical analysis based on AsiaBarometer Survey data locates a plunge in public perception that occurred during the period between the Thaksin era and the military government, but it also reveals that the difference is largely a product of inflated populist policies, and that people's commitment to a democratic system was already fragile before the coup.

Democratic Consolidation in East Asia

In this article, we attempt to describe how ordinary people in Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan view democracy and its authoritarian alternatives and how they experience institutional practices of their democracies to determine the extent of cultural and institutional democratization. The analysis of the 2006 AsiaBarometer Survey data shows that although the citizens of East Asian democracies unequivocally reject military authoritarian rule, they are ambivalent toward civilian authoritarian rule, and are not yet fully committed to democracy. The analysis also shows that they are not satisfied with the provision of civil rights and institutions of horizontal accountability, but remain highly satisfied with voting rights, which suggests that East Asian democracies are not adequately liberal, though unmistakably electoral, in the eyes of ordinary people. On the basis of this finding, we conclude that East Asian democracies fail to achieve a high-level equilibrium between the popular demand for democracy and the institutional supply of democracy.

Social Capital in East Asia: Comparative Political Culture in Confucian Societies

This paper tests the hypotheses that the tide of globalization undermines or reinforces the traditional types of social capital. Using the 2006 AsiaBarometer Survey data and applying two-level logit regression analysis, this paper found that social capital related to sense of trust or human nature and interpersonal relations can be augmented by globalization, while social capital regarding familialism and mindfulness can be weakened.

The AsiaBarometer: Its Aim, Its Scope, Its Strength

The Asia Barometer was launched on 6 May 2003 with an international symposium held at the University of Tokyo. It was executed in ten Asian societies in summer 2003. With the first AsiaBarometer survey data in their hands, Asian social scientists got together at the University of Tokyo in January 2004 to present and discuss their papers and discuss the second AsiaBarometer survey to be conducted in summer 2004. In March 2004 discussion papers came out from the Institute of Oriental Culture, University of Tokyo. By the end of 2004 the AsiaBarometer Sourcebook will come out also. This research note summarizes the AsiaBarometer's aims, scope and strength.