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

摘要

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.