Do Asians Understand Democracy Findings from Surveys

1
Do Asians Understand Democracy?  Findings from
Surveys

• Tianjian Shi
• Department of Political Science
• Duke University

2
Debates About Asian Values

• Background
• Collapse of the former Soviet Union
• End of History by Fukuyama
• Interview of Minister Mentor Lee Kew Yue of
  Singapore by editor of Foreign Affairs Fareed
  Zakaria. In the Interview, Mr. Lee pointed out
  that Asian Culture has significant impact on
  regime type and political development in Asia

3
What are the Issues?

• Is political culture in Asia really different
  from Western political culture?
• If the answer is yes, is Asian culture an
  obstacle to democratic development, as suggested
  by Mr. Lee?
• Even if Asian culture differs from that of the
  Western culture, will economic development in
  Asian societies change such culture?

4
Problems in Asian Value Debate

• The arguments of both sides rely on theoretical
  deduction.
• Modernization or structural theory.
• Institutional theory cultures are shaped by
  efforts of regime.
• Common problem, no empirical support
• Data become available for the first time in
  history -- East Asian Barometer Survey.

5
Do People in Asia Want Democracy?
6
Traditional Measures

• Which of the following statements comes closest
  to your own opinion? 
• Democracy is always preferable to any other kind
  of government.
• Under some circumstances, an authoritarian
  government can be preferable over a democratic
  one.
• It does not matter whether we have a democratic
  or a non-democratic regime.

7
(No Transcript)
8
Findings

• The Commitment to democracy for people in Asia is
  not less than for people in other continents.
• Demands for democracy in China is high, but it is
  not the highest of Asian societies.
• Demands for democracy in Thailand is of is
  highest among all Asian Societies.

9
Issues of Democratic Suitability

• While people may have a desire for democracy,
  they may also think that democracy is not
  suitable for their country. Even though people
  believe that democracy is inherently good, it may
  not be suitable for their own countries due to
  structural or institutional reasons.

10
Democratic Suitability

• Here is a scale of 1 to 10 measuring the extent
  to which people think democracy is suitable for
  their country. If 1 means that democracy is
  completely unsuitable for name of country today
  and 10 means that it is completely suitable,
  where would you place your country today?

11
(No Transcript)
12
Findings II

• The majority of people in Asia believe that
  democracy is suitable for their country.
• In Asia, people in China think democracy is most
  suitable for their country.
• People in Taiwan think democracy is most
  unsuitable for their society!
• Countries in communist and former communist
  societies think democracy is most suitable.

13
Democratic Supply

• There is another side of the story democratic
  supply.
• 1 means complete dictatorship and 10 means
  complete democracy, where would you place our
  country under the present government?

14
(No Transcript)
15
Findings III

• The popular evaluation of democratic supply in
  China ranks third in Asia.
• The popular evaluation of democratic supply given
  by people in China is higher than what is given
  by people in Japan.

16
Gap between Democracy Supply and Demand

• The most important factor for democratic
  transition in a society is not how much democracy
  people in that society want but the gap between
  supply and demand.

17
(No Transcript)
18
Puzzle

• The majority of people believe democracy is
  suitable for China.
• But at the same time, the majority believes that
  the level of democracy in China at the current
  stage of development is pretty high.
• The gap between democratic supply and demand in
  the minds of people in Mainland China is smaller
  than the gap in Mongolia and in Hong Kong.
• In Taiwan, we found a reverse relationship.
  People believe the region is too democratic.

19
Rational Choice Explanation

• For rational choice scholars, the puzzle can be
  explained by the incentive structure deduced from
  the behavior logic of utility maximization.
• Since the regime in China does not hesitate to
  suppress unauthorized expression, people dare not
  tell interviewers their true feelings in the
  survey for fear of possible political
  persecution.
• Thus, the question asking people to evaluate the
  level of democracy in their own country becomes a
  proxy of political fear.

20
(No Transcript)
21
An Alternative Explanation

• An alternative interpretation for the puzzle of
  why people in mainland China gave a high
  evaluation of the level of democratic supply and
  demand in their own country is that their
  preferences, i.e., understanding of democracy,
  are different from that of people in other
  societies.
• In other words, people in China also want
  democracy but the democracy in their mind is a
  different democracy from that which is in our
  minds.
• Understanding the reason behind the puzzle is
  critically important for different
  interpretations, which have different
  implications for the future political development
  in Asia.

22
Detachment from Authoritarian Rule

• As you know, there are some people in our country
  who would like to change the way by which our
  country is governed. We would like to know what
  you think of their views. Do you strongly agree,
  somewhat agree, somewhat disagree, or strongly
  disagree with each of the following statements?
• We should get rid of a parliament and elections,
  and have a strong leader make decisions.
• No opposition party should be allowed to compete
  for power.
• The military should come in to govern the
  country.
• We should get rid of parliament and elections and
  have the experts make decisions.

23
(No Transcript)
24
Two Definitions of Democracy

• Procedural democracy
• The nature of the relationship between
  individuals and state is one of exchange.
• Election is the only source of legitimacy.
• Different interests compete with each other and a
  government makes decisions according to the
  procedural justice.

• Substantive democracy
• The nature of the relationship between
  individuals and state a hierarchical one.
• Legitimacy comes from the substance of its
  policy.
• Leaders need to constantly prove themselves to
  their people.
• Policy is evaluated by their substance rather
  than procedure.

25
(No Transcript)
26
Conclusion

• Yes, people in Asia also want democracy.
• However, the Asian understanding of democracy is
  different from our understanding.
• The regime in Asian countries have a high
  capacity to manipulate its people by redefining
  democracy to deprive it of our understood
  connotations.

27
Conclusion-Continued

• Political Implication
• Chinese political culture makes people in China
  trust the government more than how people in
  other societies would.
• Chinese political culture makes the threshold for
  peoples engagement in unconventional political
  acts higher.
• Chinese political culture makes people understand
  democracy in a different way, and this gives the
  regime much manipulating space.
• Altogether, Chinese political culture makes a
  bottom to up democratic transition more difficult.