Scottish Centre for China Research

Abstract: Understanding what a mass public prefers politically has important implications for the sociopolitical stability and trajectory of any regime, democratic and non-democratic. Most of the extant studies of mass public sociopolitical preferences employ “standard” conceptual spectrums to operationalize the preferences, which are constructed based on conventional ideological labels, such as “left” vs. “right,” “liberal” vs. “conservative” and “democracy” vs. “autocracy” and the like. Nonetheless, such spectrums may not be applicable to the studies of mass public’s sociopolitical preferences in a non-democratic regime such as China. To help close this gap, we use a conjoint experiment design and explore the mass public’s sociopolitical preferences, which focuses on individuals’ views along two straightforward dimensions: (1) the ways political decisions should be made and (2) the results the decisions should deliver. Our findings suggest that, in terms of the ways of decision-making, people prefer one-party domination over multi-party competition and do not mind important decisions being made by elites; as the results of decisions, they prefer social stability, clean environment, extensive welfare, more political rights, and income growth. Our findings have the implications for the sociopolitical stability and potential changes in that country.

 

Speaker bio

Dr Narisong Huhe is Senior Lecturer in Politics at the University of Strathclyde. His research is inspired by a central question: how can we understand the formation and impact of public attitude and opinion, particularly in those societies with rapid socioeconomic changes and technological advancements (e.g., the Internet and social media)? He has published widely on topics from fake news on social media to political trust and corruption in China in journals such as Frontiers in Psychology, West European Politics, Journal of Chinese Political Science, Asian Survey, Journal of European Public Policy and Social Networks.

 

The Scottish Centre for China Research is grateful for the support of the MacFie Bequest for its seminar series.

For further information, contact Professor Jane Duckett <jane.duckett@glasgow.ac.uk>

---

First published: 25 January 2024