Does Ideological Education in China Suppress Trust in Religion and Foster Trust in Government?

Abstract

Abstract:A major goal of ideological education in China is to promote loyalty to the party-state and to instill atheism among the people. How effective is this ideological education? This article examines the relationship between education and trust in government and trust in religion using data from the 2010 Chinese General Social Survey. We find that education is negatively associated with trust in government, while positively related to trust in religion. Our findings suggest that policies aimed at displacing religion in favor of the Communist ideology have largely failed to shape the public mindset; rather, the more educated, the more people tend to trust religion instead of the government.

Religious Beliefs and Environmental Behaviors in China

“…The CPC is the world's second largest political party, with nearly 90 million members by the end of 2016, that are prohibited from religious beliefs (People's Daily 2016). Non-CPC members also receive ideology education from an early age as primary and middle school students, joining the CPC's affiliate organizations, the Young Pioneers and the Communist Youth League (Xie et al 2017). As a result, though religious freedom is protected by the Constitution, China is the least religious country.…”

Shaping the Religiosity of Chinese University Students: Science Education and Political Indoctrination

“…So far, only a few studies have examined the association between education and religion in former/current socialist countries. The results from these studies are confusing: One study found that the negative effect of higher education on religion was stronger in communist countries (Sacerdote and Glaeser 2001); Another showed that the secularizing effect of higher education did not vary between communist and non-communist countries (Schwadel 2015); Other studies found that higher education was positively related to religiosity in China (Wang and Uecker 2017;Xie et al 2017). These studies often used a single indicator-that is, the educational level-to represent the influences of higher education.…”

“…These governments often take a series of radical measures to secularize higher education, such as forbidding religious preaching on campus and enforcing anti-religious curricula. So far, only a few studies have examined the relationship between higher education and religion in these antireligious settings, and the findings have been mixed (Sacerdote and Glaeser 2001;Schwadel 2015;Wang and Uecker 2017;Xie et al 2017). These mixed findings may be due to the fact that the studies generally compared religiosity between populations of different education levels, an approach that fails to untangle the various components of higher education and so does not shed much light on the mechanisms through which higher education shapes students' religiosity.…”

Religious Heterogamy and the Intergenerational Transmission of Religion in China

“…In fact, it has the highest score of any nation on the Government Restriction Index (GRI), a measure of how strict government's policies are toward religious belief and practice (Pew Research Center 2018). The official doctrine of the CCP is atheism, which is taught in schools to Chinese students as core to the ideology of the Chinese socialist system (MEPRC 2001;Xie, Tong, and Yang 2017;Yang 2011;Zang 2006), and the mass media are considered channels for atheist propaganda (SMRT 2003;Zhongxuanfa 2004). The religious education of children under 18 years old is usually prohibited, 1 which combined with other antireligious policies, may discourage religious parents from actively teaching religion to their children.…”