The Impact of Economic Development on Political Interest Across Social Classes in China: Turning the Chinese Dream into a Chinese Reality?

CITATION

Owen, D. (2015) The Impact of Economic Development on Political Interest Across Social Classes in China: Turning the Chinese Dream into a Chinese Reality? Journal of Chinese Political Science, 20(2), pp.185-202

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ABSTRACT
Modernization theory has been instrumental to our understanding of the
conditions necessary for a democratic transition. Proponents suggest a link between
economic development and political development where the former leads to a stronger
middle class with a greater interest in politics, potentially resulting in demands on the
regime for concessions. Recent findings, however, suggest modernization theory is
incomplete. On the one hand, the working class may play a crucial role in the regime
concession-demanding process. On the other hand, recent empirical evidence suggests
that both classes are politically apathetic and simply do not engage the regime for
change. This study investigates this relationship between economic development and
political development by answering the question of how economic development has
impacted interest in politics across the social classes in China. I use ordered logistical
regression to test hypotheses derived from these propositions. The results have important
implications for understanding the relationship between economic development
and political development in China and the popular support for the CCP to turn the
Chinese dream into a Chinese reality.


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