Political Culture and Political Participation in the Different Chinese Cultural Areas: a Comparative Study of Mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong

One often neglected concept utilized in our survey is known as 'system culture' (Almond,1990: 153). This methodology takes into consideration the political participation and behavior of ordinary people during the process of policy implementation. We also present a new dimension that we call 'type of mobilization' for analyzing participation, and design an analytical framework to measure what we refer to as 'vertical efficacy;' again, two aspects of political participation that have frequently been overlooked in the analysis ofpolitical change.

This project has sought to reconsider the conceptualizations, theoretical assumptions, and measurements that have been developed based on the experiences of stable Western democracies by targeting the two critical concepts of political culture and political participation. The project has also made some necessary adjustments to consider the structural characteristics that have emerged in the processes of both authoritarian regime transition, as in the case of Taiwan, and socialist regime transition,as in the case of Mainland China.

To obtain a measure of political culture, we have considered the attitudes of citizens towards the legitimacy of the state structure (the governing-value orientation) and the legitimacy of the regime structure ( thepower -value orientation). This approach has been a significant modification of the Western research tradition, which has typically taken citizen attitudes as the subject of political culture. We have also considered the social values relating to political behaviors as well as the operation of political institutions in our research.

This methodology has helped to develop an appropriate framework to test the traditional values unique to Chinese culture, such as the role of inter-personal relationships, the outlook towards conflict-avoidance, and the ideals of rule of virtue and rule of man.