How Citizens Order Their Political Mind: Contemporary Ideology in China

Abstract

This study tests whether Chinese citizens have a consistent ideological orientation across multiple and related political and policy issues. Using a representative online survey, we find relatively weak evidence that Chinese citizens have a consistent ideological orientation towards general and specific issue questions. These findings suggest that authoritarian regimes such as China may have different operations in play when it comes to ideological orientations; and more broadly, partially disconfirms received academic wisdom that general issue orientation is a universal trait across jurisdictions.

Keywords: ideology, political and policy preferences, citizens, China