Social Stratification,Social Mobility And Chinese People’s Political Trust

Political trust is not only an important indicator for measuring the legitimacy of a country’s political system,but also an important resource for the country’s political development.This article seeks to examine the differences and changes in political trust among the people of Chinese mainland since the new century from the perspective of social stratification and mobility.In the theoretical analysis part,This article tries to put forward the new concepts of the "prior political trust" and the "experiential political trust" to integrate the existing classification standards of the Chinese people’s political trust in the academic world,and proposes new theoretical explanations to the phenomenon called "differential political trust" which has long existed in China.Besides,founded on the theory of political socialization,this article constructs a theoretical model of the impact of social stratification and social mobility on political trust in different dimensions of the Chinese people.In the empirical research part,combining the two models of theory-driven and data-driven,and using cluster analysis algorithms,multiple regression analysis and other statistical models,the total of 8-wave cross-sectional data for analysis.The study found: 1.The level of political trust of our people is generally high,but there is a more noticeable polarization pattern internally.The public is under a high degree of trust in the central government,political parties,and people’s congresses,while it has relatively low political trust in local governments,public security departments,and judicial departments;2.The overall level of political trust of our people generally shows a downward trend,but the overall level is still at a relatively high level,and the polarized pattern of political trust is gradually being reconstructed;3.The level of political trust in China’s various strata presents a pattern of two highs and one low in the middle.The majority of farmers hold higher political trust,followed by senior white-collar workers and private owners,while the level of general white-collar workers and self-employed individuals is relatively low;4.Receiving higher education only affects the individual’s "prior political trust",while the increase in income only affects the individual’s "experiential political trust";5.Upward social stratum flow improves the people’s political trust level by enhancing the people’s happiness,but this effect is affected by the initial class.