The Civic Consciousness of the Middle Class in China-An Analysis of CSS2013

• In Event: Distribution & State-Society in China: Social Class, Mobility and State Power

Abstract

China’s newly emerged middle class has drawn more attention from academia due to its potential political role in Chinese society. However, not enough attention has been paid to the development of its civic consciousness. Civic consciousness can be a very useful index in predicting a group’s political potential because it involves the recognition and levels of support for concepts such as equality, freedom of expression and media, human rights, and the rule of law. These concepts are all closely-related to liberal democratic value systems yet are divergent from the conservative culture and authoritarian rule which pervades Chinese society today. Aiming to explore the development of civic consciousness of this social stratum, by analyzing the data of Chinese Social Survey 2013, this paper found that, compared to the lower class, the middle class holds a significantly higher sense of civic consciousness in the aspects mentioned above. Additionally, the New Middle Class, either from within or outside the system, also has a higher sense of civic consciousness in these aspects than the Old Middle Class. However, the most important finding of this paper is that within the middle class, the acceptance of rule of man is triple (75%) that of those who prefer the rule of law. This result indicates that Chinese society is vulnerable to strongman regimes and cults of personality in their leaders. This stance casts a shadow on the Chinese middle class’s expected role of democratic vanguard as predicted by modernization theory.

Author

• Hairong Wang, University of Warwick