Personal Networks and Grassroots Election Participation in China: Findings from the Chinese General Social Survey

Abstract

Grassroots elections of rural village heads and urban community directors are an important public arena for social-political participation of Chinese citizens. Analyzing the Chinese General Social Survey (CGSS2017) data through the models of GSEM (general equation structure modeling) and fulfilling the robustness check via IV (instrumental variable) method (including IV-Probit and 2SLS-IV models), this article examines the direct and indirect effects of personal networks on voting participation after 2012 under the leadership of Xi. We find that people with greater amounts of network resources and higher frequencies of social eating with network members have a higher likelihood to participate in elections. As to mediating effects, the two measures of personal networks pave the way for people to participate in formal networks of associational engagement, which in turn increase their participation in elections; however, people with higher values in the two personal network measures tend to have lower levels of institutional trust, which in turn hinders voting participation. In comparison, the positive effects are more powerful than the negative ones, so on the whole, personal networks are acting as an important conducive force for grassroots election participation.