| This dissertation aims to designate the political trust and political participation as the research objects,and comprehensively applies normative research and large-sample empirical analysis methods to explore the influence of political trust on political participation from two aspects:static functional mechanism analysis and dynamic cohort analysis.This dissertation systematically analyzes the functional mechanism of political trust on institutionalized political participation and non-institutionalized political participation.Voting is regarded as the menifestation of institutionalized political participation and collective action is regarded as the menifestation of non-institutionalized political participation.In addition,this dissertation examines the changing trends of political trust and political participation from the perspective of age changes and cohort replacement.First of all,this dissertation explores the influence of political trust on citizens'voting behavior by employing political attention as a moderating variable and then constructing a moderating model of the functional mechanisms of political trust on voting behavior.Political participation is an indispensable part of the socialist democratic system with Chinese characteristics.It has positive functions that are important for China's political and social development during its transitional period.Based on the 2010 data from the Chinese General Social Survey(CGSS),this dissertation examines the facilitating factors in voting participation in China's democratic elections at the primary level by applying a logistic regression model Political trust is defined as the citizens' belief that the government will work to produce outcomes that are consistent with the citizens' expectations.In addition,political attention refers to how much thecitizens are concerned about politics and government affairs and the behavioral orientation of active participants in political activities.The results show that gender,age,years of schooling,social trust,social injustice,political trust and political attention are significantly related to citizens' voting behavior.This study finds that political trust has a significant and positive impact on citizens' voting behavior.More importantly,this study finds that the level of citizens' political attention can positively moderate the relationship between political trust and citizens' voting behavior.Specifically,when citizens have a higher level of political attention,the positive effects of political trust on voting behavior will be enhanced.This study also shows that citizens who frequently pay attention to news of current affairs are more likely to vote.Current affairs news can stimulate citizens',political interests and political enthusiasm and motivate them to talk more actively about political issues and participate in public political life."Political attention" can be regarded as a kind of self-political education for citizens,and an important factor when voting.Citizens with a high level of political attention are more likely to have access to timely information and knowledge about politics and to understand the procedures and methods of political participation.In contrast,citizens with a low level of political attention,even if they have a high degree of political trust,may lack the basic political participation knowledge and an understanding of the function and role of voting,which leads to their lack of participation in voting during primay democratic elections.Political trust and political attention can be seen as a confidence variable and aknowledge variable,respectively,for civil political participation.If there is only confidence,a lack of knowledge will lead to a lack of political participation.From the standpoint of the government,on the one hand,increasing publicity and raising citizens',attention to political issues will improve the efficiency and quality of participation in voting in grassroots democratic elections,and resolve the predicament of public participation amid political indifference.On the other hand,it is of great significance to enhance the political trust and improve the government's responsiveness for mobilization.Secondly,this dissertation analyzes the influence of political trust on the attitude towards collective action by applying experience of social injustice as a moderating variable.The unique phenomenon of both high political trust and high incidence of collective actions coexisting simultaneously in China is complicated and interesting By integrating the perspective of trust threshold and the theories of relative deprivation,collective action and resource mobilization,this empirical research shows that political trust has a U-shaped influence on attitude towards collective action,indicating that highly trusted politics is not "the best" politics.Political trust in modern society should be resilient.Using comprehensive survey data from the CGSS in 2006,this dissertation explains this puzzle in modern Chinese society based on two findings.First,this dissertation reveals that the high level of political trust has two both positive and negative effects on collective action.High political trust not only exerts a positive effect but also contains negative effects pertaining to very high political trust in the authoritarian system.Second,this political trust in the central government can be both a blessing and a curse.High political trust means high public expectations of the central government's performance.Yet such expectations can be deflated easily.A U-shaped relationship between political trust and collective action attitude discovery explains the Chinese phenomenon in which both high political trust and a high occurrence of collective actions coexist simultaneously.In addition,this dissertation finds the moderating role of experience of social injustice on the relationship between the political trust and collective action attitude.When high expectations are broken by experience of social injustice,then these circumstances result in dissatisfaction and aggravated collective action.Furthermore,based on a combination of the perspective of social psychology and the external effects of experience of social injustice,this dissertation conducts a typological analysis about the potential collective actors.Furthermore,the political implications of typological analysis are identified.This dissertation contributes to deepening the understanding on the pattern of how political trust affects collective action attitude in China,and contributes to maintaining social stability.The research findings also remind us that social equity is utmost important At present,China is in a rapid development period.The acceleration of itsmodernization process has brought about new social classes and interest groups.Social justice is a good tool for balancing social relations and provides a means to alleviate social dissatisfaction.During this transition period,the Chinese government needs to pay more attention to the realization of fairness and justice.On one hand,we suggest that it must deepen the reformation of the income distribution system,optimizing the income distribution structure,eliminating the occurrence of social injustice and individual privileges,and achieve common development.On the other hand,it is necessary to offer channels for social stakeholders to express their demands,protect their own fair rights,and promote the equality of all civil rightsThirdly,this dissertation also focuses on the changing tendency of political trust in China.Based on data drawn from the Asian Barometer Survey(ABS)from 2002,2008,2011 and 2015,as well as the Chinese General Social Survey(CGSS)from 2010 and 2012,we find a declining trend in the level of political trust in China,whether it be trust in the central government,or trust in the local government.Also,the results of our regression analysis show a strong cohort effect on the erosion of trust.This study provides solid empirical evidence of declining political trust in China and increases our understanding of the temporal changing dynamics of Chinese political trust.By introducing the role of changing citizens'values and the political expectations of the new generation,this research sheds light on the antecedents of the gradual inter-generational change occurring with regard to political trust in China.At the same time,both institutionalized political participation and non-institutionalized political participation have expanded significantly in the past 14 years.The degree of institutionalized political participation of citizens is an important indicator to measure a country's culture of political political participation.The research results of this dissertation show that political trust is decreasing and political participation is increasing,and China's grassroots politics have moved toward the modernization of a governance system and its capacity.Another important finding was that older citizens were more likely to vote,while younger citizens were more likely to participate in collective action.The age effect has more explanatory power than the generational effect on the changes of citizens'political participation.Finally,this dissertation systematically discusses and considers the research results of each part,and discusses the corresponding political suggestions.This dissertation also clarifies the relationship between political trust and citizens' political participation On the one hand,political trust can significantly promote the institutionalized political participation and curb non-institutionalized political participation.On the other hand,the high expectations brought by political trust can be easily turned into dissatisfaction and collective action if these expections are not met.This is the first time to reveal the theoretical two-sided role of political trust on political participation,both positive effect and negative effect.From the perspective of generational replacement,the changes in the political trust has shown significant cohort effect,however,institutionalization and non-institutionalized political participations have shown significant age effect.In this regard,this study characterizes the trust and political participation of the young cohort,that is,the decline of political trust,and the expansion of institutionalized and non-institutionalized political participation.In the conclusion and recommendations part,this dissertation provides academic support for cultivating political trust,expanding the orderly political participation of citizens,and maintaining social stability. |
PDF Full Text Request