You can manage bookmarks using lists, please log in to your user account for this.
Media type:
E-Article
Title:
Self-censorship of regime support in authoritarian states: Evidence from list experiments in China
Contributor:
Robinson, Darrel;
Tannenberg, Marcus
Published:
SAGE Publications, 2019
Published in:
Research & Politics, 6 (2019) 3, Seite 205316801985644
Language:
English
DOI:
10.1177/2053168019856449
ISSN:
2053-1680
Origination:
Footnote:
Description:
<jats:p> The study of popular support for authoritarian regimes has long relied on the assumption that respondents provide truthful answers to surveys. However, when measuring regime support in closed political systems there is a distinct risk that individuals are less than forthright due to fear that their opinions may be made known to the public or the authorities. In order to test this assumption, we conducted a novel web-based survey in China in which we included four list experiments of commonly used items in the comparative literature on regime support. We find systematic bias for all four measures; substantially more individuals state that they support the regime with direct questioning than when presented with our indirect list experiments. The level of self-censorship, which ranges from 24.5 to 26.5 percentage points, is considerably higher than previously thought. Self-censorship is further most prevalent among the wealthy, urban, female and younger respondents. </jats:p>