Abstract
This chapter is an introduction to the whole book. First, it discusses the importance of the subject matter of the book. China is currently experiencing a period of massive urbanization. For the first time in Chinese history, more Chinese live in the country’s cities than in the rural areas. As a result, Chinese urbanites are likely to determine the future of the country. It is the assumption of the author that political culture shapes people’s political behavior. Chinese political culture is not unique, even though it might have differences from political cultures of other countries. This book also takes an empirical approach to the study of political culture in urban China. An outline of the book is also laid out in this chapter.
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- 1.
“Megacities: China’s Urban Challenge,” by Thomas J Campanella, June 21, 2011, BBC News (http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-pacific-13799997, accessed on August 10, 2015).
- 2.
See Fulong Wu, Jiang Xu, and Anthony Gar-On Yeh, Urban Development in Post-Reform China: State, Market, and Space (London: Routledge, 2007), p. 3.
- 3.
See China’s New Style Urbanization published in 2015. http://www.gov.cn/zhengce/2014-03/16/content_2640075.htm (accessed on August 9, 2015).
- 4.
Ibid.
- 5.
Jeremy Wallace, Cities and Stability: Urbanization, Redistribution and Regime Survival in China (London: Oxford University Press, 2014).
- 6.
Samuel P. Huntington, Political Order in Changing Societies (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1968), pp. 300–301.
- 7.
Seymour M. Lipset, “Some Social Requisites of Democracy: Economic Development and Political Legitimacy,” American Political Science Review, Vol. 53, No. 1 (1959), pp. 69–105.
- 8.
Robert M. Anthony, “Urbanization and Political Change in the Developing World: A Cross-National Analysis, 1865–2010,” Urban Affairs Review, Vol. 50, No. 6 (2014), pp. 743–780.
- 9.
Gabriel Almond and Sidney Verba, The Civic Culture: Political Attitudes and Democracy in Five Nations (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1963).
- 10.
See Peter Moody, “Trends in the Study of Chinese Political Culture,” The China Quarterly, No. 139 (1994).
- 11.
Lucian Pye is one of the most representative scholars in this school of thought. See Andrew Nathan’s comments on Lucian Pye’s works, “Is Chinese Culture Distinctive? A Review Article,” Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. 52, No. 4 (1993), p. 933.
- 12.
See Michael Oksenberg, A Bibliography of Secondary English Language Literature on Contemporary Chinese Politics (New York: East Asian Institute, Columbia University, 1970), p. iv.
- 13.
See Godwin Chu and Yanan Ju, The Great Wall in Ruins: Communication and Cultural Change in China (Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 1993); and Steve Chan, “Chinese Political Attitudes and Values in Comparative Context: Cautionary Remarks on Cultural Attributions,” Journal of Chinese Political Science, Vol. 13, No. 3 (2008), pp. 225–48.
- 14.
Andrew Nathan, “Is Chinese Culture Distinctive? A Review Article,” Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. 52, No. 4 (1993).
- 15.
Harry Harding, “The Evolution of American Scholarship on Contemporary China,” in David Shambaugh, ed., American Studies of Contemporary China (Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 1993), p. 29.
- 16.
See Melanie Manion, “A Survey of Survey Research on Chinese Politics: What Have We Learned?,” in Contemporary Chinese Politics: New Sources, Methods and Field Strategies, ed. Allen Carlson, Mary Gallagher, Kenneth Lieberthal and Melanie Manion (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010), pp. 181–200.
- 17.
Former Premier Wen Jiabao, in a speech he gave to students at Nankai High School in Tianjin, stresses the importance of public opinions by saying that the only criterion to measure whether the Chinese government has done its job or not is to see whether public is happy with government policies (see http://news.xinhuanet.com/book/2013-10/31/c_125623414_3.htm, accessed on August 16, 2015). In fact, Alan Liu argues that the various post-Mao economic and political reforms were reactions by the Chinese Communist Party to the general sentiments and demands of the public in China. See Alan Liu, Mass Politics in the People’s Republic: State and Society in Contemporary China (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1996), p. 2.
- 18.
See, for example, Tianjian Shi, Political Participation in Beijing (Boston, MA: Harvard University Press, 1997); Jie Chen, Popular Political Support in Urban China (Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press, 2004); and Wenfang Tang, Public Opinion and Political Change in China (Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press, 2005).
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Zhong, Y. (2018). Introduction. In: Political Culture and Participation in Urban China. New Perspectives on Chinese Politics and Society. Palgrave, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-6268-1_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-6268-1_1
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