IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/soinre/v152y2020i3d10.1007_s11205-020-02466-w.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Socio-Economic Modernization and the “Crisis of Trust” in China: A Multi-level Analysis of General and Particular Trust

Author

Listed:
  • H. Christoph Steinhardt

    (University of Vienna)

  • Jan Delhey

    (Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg)

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.

Suggested Citation

  • H. Christoph Steinhardt & Jan Delhey, 2020. "Socio-Economic Modernization and the “Crisis of Trust” in China: A Multi-level Analysis of General and Particular Trust," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 152(3), pages 923-949, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:spr:soinre:v:152:y:2020:i:3:d:10.1007_s11205-020-02466-w
    DOI: 10.1007/s11205-020-02466-w
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11205-020-02466-w
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11205-020-02466-w?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Victor Nee & Håkan J. Holm & Sonja Opper, 2018. "Learning to Trust: From Relational Exchange to Generalized Trust in China," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 29(5), pages 969-986, October.
    2. Narisong Huhe, 2014. "Understanding the Multilevel Foundation of Social Trust in Rural China: Evidence from the China General Social Survey," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 95(2), pages 581-597, June.
    3. Landry, Pierre F. & Shen, Mingming, 2005. "Reaching Migrants in Survey Research: The Use of the Global Positioning System to Reduce Coverage Bias in China," Political Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 13(1), pages 1-22, January.
    4. Sefa Awaworyi Churchill & Vinod Mishra, 2017. "Trust, Social Networks and Subjective Wellbeing in China," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 132(1), pages 313-339, May.
    5. H. Christoph Steinhardt, 2012. "How is High Trust in China Possible? Comparing the Origins of Generalized Trust in Three Chinese Societies," Political Studies, Political Studies Association, vol. 60(2), pages 434-454, June.
    6. Nathan Nunn & Leonard Wantchekon, 2011. "The Slave Trade and the Origins of Mistrust in Africa," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 101(7), pages 3221-3252, December.
    7. Wu, Ximing & Perloff, Jeffrey M., 2005. "China's Income Distribution, 1985-2001," Department of Agricultural & Resource Economics, UC Berkeley, Working Paper Series qt0zd6m0sf, Department of Agricultural & Resource Economics, UC Berkeley.
    8. Wu, Ximing & Perloff, Jeffrey M., 2005. "China's Income Distribution, 1985-2001," Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, Working Paper Series qt0zd6m0sf, Institute of Industrial Relations, UC Berkeley.
    9. Ximing Wu & Jeffrey M. Perloff, 2005. "China's Income Distribution, 1985-2001," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 87(4), pages 763-775, November.
    10. Wallace, Jeremy L., 2016. "Juking the Stats? Authoritarian Information Problems in China," British Journal of Political Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 46(1), pages 11-29, January.
    11. Fearon, James D, 2003. "Ethnic and Cultural Diversity by Country," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 8(2), pages 195-222, June.
    12. Anna Almakaeva & Christian Welzel & Eduard Ponarin, 2018. "Human Empowerment and Trust in Strangers: The Multilevel Evidence," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 139(3), pages 923-962, October.
    13. Carpenter, James R. & Goldstein, Harvey & Kenward, Michael G., 2011. "REALCOM-IMPUTE Software for Multilevel Multiple Imputation with Mixed Response Types," Journal of Statistical Software, Foundation for Open Access Statistics, vol. 45(i05).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Qu, Zhaopeng (Frank) & Zhao, Zhong, 2008. "Urban-Rural Consumption Inequality in China from 1988 to 2002: Evidence from Quantile Regression Decomposition," IZA Discussion Papers 3659, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Ximing Wu & Andreas Savvides & Thanasis Stengos, 2008. "The Global Joint Distribution of Income and Health," Working Papers 0807, University of Guelph, Department of Economics and Finance.
    3. Molero-Simarro, Ricardo, 2017. "Inequality in China revisited. The effect of functional distribution of income on urban top incomes, the urban-rural gap and the Gini index, 1978–2015," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 101-117.
    4. Lars Osberg & Jiaping Shao & Kuan Xu, 2009. "The growth of poor children in China 1991–2000: why food subsidies may matter," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 18(S1), pages 89-108, April.
    5. Arslan Razmi, 2008. "Is the Chinese Investment- and Export-Led Growth Model Sustainable? Some Rising Concerns," UMASS Amherst Economics Working Papers 2008-09, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Department of Economics.
    6. Yi Chen & Frank A. Cowell, 2017. "Mobility in China," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 63(2), pages 203-218, June.
    7. Hou, Xiaohui & Coyne, Joseph, 2008. "The emergence of proprietary medical facilities in China," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 88(1), pages 141-151, October.
    8. Ivana Malá, 2013. "Použití konečných směsí logaritmicko-normálních rozdělení pro modelování příjmů českých domácností [The Use of Finite Mixtures of Lognormal Distribution for the Modelling of Household Income Distri," Politická ekonomie, Prague University of Economics and Business, vol. 2013(3), pages 356-372.
    9. Gholamreza Hajargasht & William E. Griffiths & Joseph Brice & D.S. Prasada Rao & Duangkamon Chotikapanich, 2012. "Inference for Income Distributions Using Grouped Data," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(4), pages 563-575, May.
    10. Henderson, Daniel J. & Tochkov, Kiril & Badunenko, Oleg, 2007. "A drive up the capital coast? Contributions to post-reform growth across Chinese provinces," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 29(3), pages 569-594, September.
    11. Guido Cozzi & Fabio Privileggi, 2009. "The fractal nature of inequality in a fast growing world: new version," Working Papers 2009_30, Business School - Economics, University of Glasgow.
    12. Gordon Anderson & Tongtong Hao & Maria Grazia Pittau, 2016. "Income Inequality, Family Formation and Generational Mobility in Urban China," Working Papers tecipa-563, University of Toronto, Department of Economics.
    13. Jin, Hailong & Qian, Hang & Wang, Tong & Choi, E. Kwan, 2014. "Income distribution in urban China: An overlooked data inconsistency issue," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 383-396.
    14. Gholamreza Hajargsht & William E. Griffiths & Joseph Brice & D.S. Prasada Rao & Duangkamon Chotikapanich, 2011. "GMM Estimation of Income Distributions from Grouped Data," Department of Economics - Working Papers Series 1129, The University of Melbourne.
    15. Wenkai Sun & Xianghong Wang & Xiaoxi Zhang, 2015. "Minimum wage effects on employment and working time of Chinese workers——evidence based on CHNS," IZA Journal of Labor & Development, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 4(1), pages 1-22, December.
    16. Cao, Jing & Ho, Mun Sing & Li, Yating & Newell, Richard G. & Pizer, William A., 2019. "Chinese residential electricity consumption: Estimation and forecast using micro-data," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 6-27.
    17. Chen, Yaqing & Dawson, Matthew & Müller, Hans-Georg, 2020. "Rank dynamics for functional data," Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 149(C).
    18. Gao, Li, 2015. "Evolution of consumption distribution and model of wealth distribution in China between 1995 and 2012," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 429(C), pages 76-86.
    19. Anderson, Gordon & Farcomeni, Alessio & Pittau, Maria Grazia & Zelli, Roberto, 2016. "A new approach to measuring and studying the characteristics of class membership: Examining poverty, inequality and polarization in urban China," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 191(2), pages 348-359.
    20. Jin, Yanhong & Fan, Maoyong & Cheng, Mingwang & Shi, Qinghua, 2014. "The economic gains of cadre status in rural China: Investigating effects and mechanisms," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 185-200.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:soinre:v:152:y:2020:i:3:d:10.1007_s11205-020-02466-w. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.