The Paradox of Middle-Class Attitudes in China: Democracy, Social Stability, and Reform
This article explores the seemingly paradoxical attitudes of the Chinese middle class towards democracy, social stability, and reform. Using fieldwork data from Ningbo, this article shows that a group of objective, middle-class individuals can concurrently display high levels of support for democrat...
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doaj-123d1987ce4f43119e086163cb8a184a2020-11-25T02:58:17ZengSAGE PublishingJournal of Current Chinese Affairs1868-48742016-01-01451169190The Paradox of Middle-Class Attitudes in China: Democracy, Social Stability, and ReformYing Miao0Xi’an Jiaotong Liverpool UniversityThis article explores the seemingly paradoxical attitudes of the Chinese middle class towards democracy, social stability, and reform. Using fieldwork data from Ningbo, this article shows that a group of objective, middle-class individuals can concurrently display high levels of support for democratic principles and low levels of participation in real-life socio-political events. Being generally confident in China’s social stability, these individuals have little to no desire for significant democratic reform, or indeed any reform that occurs outside the purview of the state, as it is considered destabilising. By highlighting the distinction between how these members of the middle class respond to generic democratic concepts, real-life socio-political affairs, and the idea of democratic reform, this article argues that the Chinese middle class are aware of what “should be,” what “could be,” and what “is,” which lends their socio-political attitudes a paradoxical appearance.https://journals.sub.uni-hamburg.de/giga/jcca/article/view/950Survey and interviewSociologyPolitical ScienceChinaChinese middle classsocial stabilitypolitical reformpolitical expectationPX incident300320ChinaContemporaryMiddle class sample by objective criterian=182 |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Ying Miao |
spellingShingle |
Ying Miao The Paradox of Middle-Class Attitudes in China: Democracy, Social Stability, and Reform Journal of Current Chinese Affairs Survey and interview Sociology Political Science China Chinese middle class social stability political reform political expectation PX incident 300 320 China Contemporary Middle class sample by objective criteria n=182 |
author_facet |
Ying Miao |
author_sort |
Ying Miao |
title |
The Paradox of Middle-Class Attitudes in China: Democracy, Social Stability, and Reform |
title_short |
The Paradox of Middle-Class Attitudes in China: Democracy, Social Stability, and Reform |
title_full |
The Paradox of Middle-Class Attitudes in China: Democracy, Social Stability, and Reform |
title_fullStr |
The Paradox of Middle-Class Attitudes in China: Democracy, Social Stability, and Reform |
title_full_unstemmed |
The Paradox of Middle-Class Attitudes in China: Democracy, Social Stability, and Reform |
title_sort |
paradox of middle-class attitudes in china: democracy, social stability, and reform |
publisher |
SAGE Publishing |
series |
Journal of Current Chinese Affairs |
issn |
1868-4874 |
publishDate |
2016-01-01 |
description |
This article explores the seemingly paradoxical attitudes of the Chinese middle class towards democracy, social stability, and reform. Using fieldwork data from Ningbo, this article shows that a group of objective, middle-class individuals can concurrently display high levels of support for democratic principles and low levels of participation in real-life socio-political events. Being generally confident in China’s social stability, these individuals have little to no desire for significant democratic reform, or indeed any reform that occurs outside the purview of the state, as it is considered destabilising. By highlighting the distinction between how these members of the middle class respond to generic democratic concepts, real-life socio-political affairs, and the idea of democratic reform, this article argues that the Chinese middle class are aware of what “should be,” what “could be,” and what “is,” which lends their socio-political attitudes a paradoxical appearance. |
topic |
Survey and interview Sociology Political Science China Chinese middle class social stability political reform political expectation PX incident 300 320 China Contemporary Middle class sample by objective criteria n=182 |
url |
https://journals.sub.uni-hamburg.de/giga/jcca/article/view/950 |
work_keys_str_mv |
AT yingmiao theparadoxofmiddleclassattitudesinchinademocracysocialstabilityandreform AT yingmiao paradoxofmiddleclassattitudesinchinademocracysocialstabilityandreform |
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1724707379250987008 |