A Middle Class Without Democracy

What kind of role can the middle class play in potential democratization in such an undemocratic, late developing country as China? To answer this profound political as well as theoretical question, Jie Chen explores attitudinal and behavioral orientation of China’s new middle class to democracy, based on a probability-sample survey and in-depth interviews of residents in the Chinese cities of Beijing, Chengdu, and Xi’an. While China’s middle class is not likely to serve as the harbinger of democracy now, its current negative attitudes toward democracy may change in the future.