The Attitudes of the Chinese Middle Class Towards Democracy

Little has been done to quantitatively establish the connection between the middle class and a specific regime type. In an effort to fill in the gap, this study uses Asian Barometer survey dataset to examine the attitudes and orientation of China’s rising middle class. We find that the Chinese middle class does show higher democratic orientation than those we categorize as lower class, but only if class is defined by occupation or by self-identification, and not by income level. We interpret this result to mean that economic development offers new life experiences with the creation of new types of professions and enhances people’s agreement with modern democratic values by arousing people’s consciousness of their new social class status.

Min TangEmail:

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Min Tang   is doctoral candidate of political science at Purdue University. His research interest is in democratization, Asian political economy, and Chinese politics. His recent publications appear in Democratization (15:1, 2008) and African and Asian Studies (7:2, 2008). Dwayne Woods   is associate professor of Political Science at Purdue University. His research interest includes democratization, geography and economic development. His recent work can be found in African and Asian Studies (7:2, 2008) and Commonwealth & Comparative Politics (45:2, 2007). Jujun Zhao   is PhD student of public administration at Nankai University. His research focuses on local government, public finance, and Chinese politics.