Democratic Conceptions and Regime Support among Chinese Citizens

摘要

Using the 2011 mainland China national survey (as a part of the ABS Ⅲ), this paper examines the possible relationship between Chinese citizens' support for their one-party regime and their democratic conceptions. This paper argues that the puzzling coexistence of and a positive correlation between high regime support and prevailing acceptance of democracy as the best form of government in mainland China could be, at least partly attributed to Chinese citizens' distinct democratic conceptions that are shaped by different political discourses, i.e., a guardianship discourse vs. a liberal democracy discourse. Empirical evidence based on comparable survey instruments from mainland China and the US confirms the validity of this differentiation between the two democratic conceptions on how democracy should be understood and practiced. Moreover, once Chinese citizens have embraced distinct democratic conceptions, their regime support responds to different governance issues. And the relationship between regime support and acceptance of democracy as the best form of government varies following distinct democratic conceptions.