Mass Political Interest In Mainland China:an Empirical Study

Political interest,which is defined as psychological involvement in politics,is the prerequisite for political participation.This study has both theoretical and practical implication by answering these two questions: First,what's the level of political interest in mainland China? Second,which variables may have significant effects on the levels of mass political interest in mainland China? Based on a cross-regional survey of Chinese residents in 26 provinces,this study uses correlation analysis and regression analysis to find out that political trust,political efficacy,being a member of Chinese Communist Party or Communist Youth League member,the frequency of using the Internet,people's social and economic condition,gender,age and education all affect mass political interest significantly,but being a farmer doesn't have significant effect on mass political interest.The reason why urban citizens show high level of political interest is because they can get better education.This study further points out that people trust their central government more than their local government and officials,and people have low internal political efficacy and external political efficacy.So it is important to build public trust in local government and officials,and foster people's internal political efficacy and external political efficacy so as to increase mass political interest.