Socio-Economic Modernization and the “Crisis of Trust” in China

Author(s)

Heinz Christoph Steinhardt, Jan Delhey

Abstract

Theorists have long disagreed about the impact of socio-economic modernization on social trust. The pessimistic school asserts that modernization undermines the structural conditions for high levels of trust. The optimistic account argues that it delivers economic security and human empowerment and thereby enhances trust. Adapting these contrasting theories to the specific case of China, this article puts them to the test with survey data from the World Values Survey. Exploiting the condition of highly uneven levels of regional development, combined with common political institutions and a shared cultural heritage, the study conducts a multi-level analysis of survey data from over 1900 individuals and a wide range of regional statistics from 61 county-level units. While trust in family members and particular trust beyond the family are unaffected by levels of regional modernization, we find robust evidence to suggest that regional modernization is associated with substantially higher levels of general trust. The results further suggests that higher general trust in more developed regions does not lead to an enhanced conversion of particular into general trust. This indicates that general trust is nurtured through the contextual effect of residing in more modern social environments. Overall, these findings provide substantial support for modernization optimists and lend themselves to a reinterpretation of a widely discussed “trust crisis” in China, which to date is often interpreted according to the pessimistic view of modernization.

Organisation(s)

Department of East Asian Studies

External organisation(s)

Otto-von-Guericke-Universität Magdeburg

Journal

Social Indicators Research

Volume

152

Pages

923–949

No. of pages

27

ISSN

0303-8300

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-020-02466-w

Publication date

08-2020

Peer reviewed

Yes

Austrian Fields of Science 2012

504023 Political sociology, 506014 Comparative politics, 504007 Empirical social research

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

General Social Sciences, Developmental and Educational Psychology, Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous), Sociology and Political Science

Portal url

https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/21f687ec-3213-450f-be98-5b5bc74a3349