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100 _aYan, Yu Li, Zhenzhen and Meng, Tianguang
_956779
245 _aConceptions of democracy in China: New evidence from the structural topic model
260 _aInternational Political Science Review
300 _a46(3), Jun, 2025: p.370-387
520 _aThis article investigates popular conceptions of democracy and its underlying factors in China. Democratic conceptions among Chinese citizens have long been debated, with most concluding that economic welfare and government performance dominate how the Chinese view democracy. This article offers a different picture, with new evidence drawn from text data. By employing the structural topic model to analyze the responses to open-ended questions from three waves of the Asian Barometer Survey between 2008 and 2015, this article delineates four democratic conceptions prevalent among the Chinese populace, namely ‘Political Participation’, ‘Political Rights’, ‘Consultative Decision-making’ and ‘Socioeconomic Performance’. The analysis shows that political participation has become the most prominent conception, closely followed by political rights. This finding suggests a shift in the Chinese interpretation of democracy, aligning more closely with western procedural notions while still retaining distinct Chinese characteristics. In addition to rising demands for freedom and equality, informed respondents ask for deeper involvement in public affairs and higher inclusion in the decision-making process. These trends underscore the necessity for the Chinese authorities to more effectively address public demands, especially in the context of the ongoing endeavor to cultivate China’s new model of whole-process people’s democracy.- Reproduced https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/01925121241266228 https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/01925121241266228
650 _aConception of democracy, Political participation, Political rights, China.
_956780
773 _aInternational Political Science Review
942 _cAR