A POLITICAL STORY OF POLITICAL TRUST: INSTITUTIONAL SETTINGS, POLITICAL PERFORMANCE, AND POLITICAL TRUST IN EAST ASIA by Qing Yang B.A., China Foreign Affairs University, 2002 M.A., University of Pittsburgh, 2004 Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Pittsburgh 2012 UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH DIETRICH SCHOOL OF ARTS AND SCIENCES This dissertation was presented by Qing Yang It was defended on December 3, 2012 and approved by Barry Ames, Andrew W. Mellon Professor, Department of Political Science Jonathan Harris, Professor, Department of Political Science Thomas Rawski, Professor, Department of Economics Dissertation Advisor: David C. Barker, Associate Professor, Department of Political Science ii A POLITICAL STORY OF POLITICAL TRUST: INSTITUTIONAL SETTINGS, POLITICAL PERFORMANCE, AND POLITICAL TRUST IN EAST ASIA Qing Yang, PhD University of Pittsburgh, 2012 Political trust is indispensable for effective government operation and regime stability. The endemic low levels of political trust observed in many democracies have raised some important questions: Why do people trust or distrust political institutions? What are the sources of political trust? Literature on political trust is extensive, but generally suffers from two common limitations. First, most studies on trust have focused on either political culture or political economy as the main sources of political trust. The real political sources of trust have been missing from current discussions. Second, most research on political trust excludes non- democratic societies. The high levels of political trust in authoritarian societies have been treated as an anomaly. This dissertation attempts to address these two issues by studying the political sources of political trust in both democratic and authoritarian regimes. I argue that people trust institutions when they perceive institutions trustworthy. Trustworthiness arises from the commitment and capacity of institutions, and it is shaped by the political context of institutional arrangements. In other words, citizens trust institutions when they believe that institutions are committed to and capable of fulfilling their trust, and their perceptions of institutions are conditioned by institutional arrangements. iii To explore the political sources of political trust, I have used multilevel analyses with comparative data from East Asian societies and other countries. The statistical results highlight the significant effects of institutional settings and political performance. On the one hand, institutional features such as regime types, party systems, executive systems, and party allegiance that individuals are embedded in shape the way they trust institutions. On the other hand, institutional political performance consistently showed strong influence on the levels of political trust in different regimes and settings. By bringing political factors back into equation, I hope my dissertation will help provide a more comprehensive understanding of political trust. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS PREFACE ... …………………………………….…..…………………………………………XII 1.0 INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................... 1 1.1 THE PUZZLE: THE POLITICAL STORY OF POLITICAL TRUST ........................... 1 1.2. THE ARGUMENT IN BRIEF & THEORETICAL CONTRIBUTIONS ....................... 5 2.0 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ................................................................................ 9 2.1 DEFINING THE KEY CONCEPTS ............................................................................. 9 2.1.1 Trust and Trustworthiness: Trust as a Relational Concept ............................. 9 2.1.2 Alienation, Trust, and Political Support: Objects and Dimensions .............. 11 2.1.3 The Empirical Meaning of Political Trust ................................................... 13 2.2 LITERATURE REVIEW: THE CULTURE VERSUS PERFORMANCE DEBATE.. 20 2.2.1 A Survey of the Literature: the Decline of Political Trust in Democracies…………………………………………………………………………20 2.2.2 Theories of Political Culture: Social Capital and Cultural Values ............... 23 2.2.3 Political Economy of Political Trust: Institutional Performance Approach .. 28 2.3 THIS DISSERTATION: THE OVERLOOKED POLITICAL STORY OF POLITICAL TRUST ............................................................................................................................. 31 2.3.1 Political Performance of the Institutions and Authorities ............................ 32 v 2.3.2 Political Context: Institutional Designs and Political Trust ......................... 38 3.0 ARGUMENT IN BRIEF ............................................................................................. 45 3.1 ARGUMENT IN BRIEF AND PROPOSITIONS ....................................................... 45 3.1.1 Political Performance and Political Trust .................................................... 45 3.1.2 Institutional Designs and Political Trust ..................................................... 47 3.1.3 Control: Other Sources of Political Trust .................................................... 54 3.2 RESEARCH DESIGN: DATA AND OUTLINE ........................................................ 57 3.2.1 Data ........................................................................................................... 57 3.2.2 Research Plan ............................................................................................. 59 4.0 PATTERNS AND SOURCES: EVIDENCE FROM GLOBAL DATA ................... 62 4.1 PATTERNS OF THE LEVELS OF POLITICAL TRUST ACROSS THE WORLD ... 63 4.2 SOURCES OF POLITICAL TRUST – EVIDENCE FROM THE TWO MAJOR THEORETICAL TRADITIONS ...................................................................................... 66 4.2.1 Two Major Theoretical Traditions .............................................................. 66 4.2.2 Social Trust and Political Trust – Revisit Political Cultural Explanations ...67 4.3 POLITICAL SOURCES OF POLITICAL TRUST – A MULTI-LEVEL MODEL OF TRUST IN INSTITUTIONS ............................................................................................. 74 4.3.1 Country and Individual Level Sources of Political Trust ............................. 76 4.3.2 Methodology (HLM) .................................................................................. 82 4.3.3 Statistical Results and Discussions ............................................................. 84 4.4 DISCUSSIONS AND CONCLUSION ....................................................................... 91 vi 5.0 EXPLAINING POLITICAL TRUST: EVIDENCE FROM EAST ASIAN DEMOCRACIES .................................................................................................................... 94 5.1 POLITICAL TRUST IN EAST ASIA: LEVELS AND TREND.................................. 95 5.2 RECALL THE HYPOTHESES IN EAST ASIAN CONTEXT ................................... 97 5.2.1 The Economic Growth Hypothesis ............................................................. 98 5.2.2 The Asian Values Hypothesis ..................................................................... 99 5.2.3 The Political Performance Hypotheses ....................................................... 99 5.2.4 The Institutional Designs Hypotheses ....................................................... 100 5.3 DATA AND MEASUREMENT .............................................................................. 104 5.4 EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS OF INDIVIDUAL LEVEL SOURCES OF POLITICAL TRUST IN EAST ASIA DEMOCRACIES ..................................................................... 107 5.4.1 Political Trust in Seven East Asian Democracies ...................................... 107 5.4.2 Sources of Political Trust in the Five Political Institutions ........................ 110 5.5 MULTILEVEL ANALYSIS OF SOURCES OF POLITICAL TRUST IN EAST ASIA ………………………………………………………………………………………..112 5.5.1 A Multilevel Analysis of Political Trust in East Asian Democracy ........... 113 5.5.2 A Multilevel Analysis of Political Trust in East Asia (All Countries)........ 117 5.6 CONCLUSIONS ..................................................................................................... 120 6.0 POLITICAL TRUST IN AUTHORITARIAN REGIMES: EVIDENCE FROM CHINA ................................................................................................................................... 123 6.1 THE VALIDITY OF SURVEY RESEARCH RESPONSES IN CHINA ................... 124 6.2 SOURCES OF POLITICAL TRUST IN CHINA ...................................................... 126 6.2.1 Trust and Political Institutions in China .................................................... 126 vii 6.2.2 Political Sources of Political Trust in Authoritarian Regimes .................... 130 6.3 TRUST IN OTHER NON-DEMOCRATIC REGIMES IN EAST ASIA ................... 142 6.4 THE INVERSE TRUST GAP IN CHINA ................................................................ 146 6.5 SUMMARY AND DISCUSSIONS.......................................................................... 152 7.0 CONCLUSIONS ........................................................................................................... 155 7.1 THE MAJOR FINDINGS OF THE DISSERTATION .............................................. 155 7.2 THE CONSEQUENCES OF POLITICAL TRUST .................................................. 159 7.2.1