Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-p9bg8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T20:34:03.941Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Culture, Citizenship Norms, and Political Participation: Empirical Evidence from Taiwan

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 April 2016

WEN-CHUN CHANG*
Affiliation:
Department of Public Finance, National Taipei University, [email protected]

Abstract

This study investigates the role of religion in shaping the norms of citizenship from a cultural perspective for an East Asian country that exhibits fundamental differences in social contexts from Western advanced democracies. Using data drawn from the Taiwan Social Change Survey, we find that the Eastern religions of Buddhism, Taoism, and Folk Religions are important for explaining the formation of the concept of being a good citizen. This study further examines the relationships between citizenship norms and various conventional and unconventional types of political participation. The empirical results herein suggest that duty-based citizenship and engaged citizenship have significant differences in their effects on political participation.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Acemoglu, D. and Robinson, J. (2005), Economic Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Alesina, A. and Giuliano, P. (forthcoming), ‘Culture and Institutions’, Journal of Economic Literature, forthcoming.Google Scholar
Bell, D. A. (2006), Beyond Liberal Democracy: Political Thinking for an East Asian Context, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berling, J. A. (1982), ‘Asian Religions’, Focus on Asian Studies, 2 (1): 511.Google Scholar
Bimber, B. and Copeland, L. (2013), ‘Digital Media and Traditional Political Participation Over Time in the U.S.’, Journal of Information Technology & Politics, 10: 125–37.Google Scholar
Blais, A. and Rubenson, D. (2013), ‘The Source of Turnout Decline: New Values or New Contexts?’, Comparative Political Studies, 46 (1): 95117.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blondel, J. and Inoguchi, T. (2006), Political Culture in Asia and Europe, New York: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bolzendahl, C. and Coffé, H. (2013), ‘Are “Good” Citizens “Good” Participants? Testing Citizenship Norms and Political Participation across 25 Nations’, Political Studies, 61 (S1): 4565.Google Scholar
Brady, H. E., Verba, S., and Schlozman, K. L. (1995), ‘Beyond SES: A Resource Model of Political Participation’, American Political Science Review, 89 (2): 271–94.Google Scholar
Chu, Y.-H., Diamond, L., Nathan, A. J., and Shin, D. C. (2008), ‘Introduction: Comparative Perspectives on Democratic Legitimacy in East Asia’, in Yun-Han, Chu, Diamond, Larry, Nathan, Andrew J., and Shin, Doh Chull (eds.), How East Asians View Democracy, New York: Columbia University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coffé, H. and van der Lippe, T. (2010), ‘Citizenship Norms in Eastern Europe’, Social Indicators Research, 96: 479–96.Google Scholar
Copeland, L. (2014), ‘Value Change and Political Action: Postmaterialism, Political Consumerism, and Political Participation’, American Political Research, 42 (2): 257–82.Google Scholar
Dalton, R. J. (2008), ‘Citizenship Norms and the Expansion of Political Participation’, Political Studies, 56: 7698.Google Scholar
Dalton, R. J. and Ong, N.-N. T. (2006), ‘Authority Orientations and Democratic Attitudes: A Test of the “Asian Values” Hypothesis’, Japanese Journal of Political Science, 6 (2): 121.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dalton, R. J. and Shin, D. C. (2014), ‘Growing up Democratic: Generational Change in East Asian Democracies’, Japanese Journal of Political Science, 15 (3): 345–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dalton, R. J., Van Sickle, A., and Weldon, S. (2010), ‘The Individual–Institutional Nexus of Protest Behaviour’, British Journal of Political Science, 40 (1): 5173.Google Scholar
De Koster, W. and Van Der Waal, J. (2007), ‘Cultural Value Orientations and Christian Religiosity: On Moral Traditionalism, Authoritarianism, and Their Implications for Voting Behavior’, International Political Science Review, 28 (4): 451–67.Google Scholar
Dhammanada, K. S. (2002), What Buddhists Believe, 4th edn, Buddhist Missionary Society Malaysia.Google Scholar
Diamond, L. and Plattner, M. F. (1998), Democracy in East Asia, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eveland, W. P. (2004), ‘The Effect of Political Discussion in Producing Informed Citizens: The Roles of Information, Motivation, and Elaboration’, Political Communication, 21 (2): 177–93.Google Scholar
Fetzer, J. S. and Soper, C. (2007), ‘The Effect of Confucian Values on Support for Democracy and Human Rights in Taiwan’, Taiwan Journal of Democracy, 3 (1): 143–54.Google Scholar
Flanagan, S. C. and Lee, A.-R. (2003), ‘The New Politics, Culture Wars, and the Authoritarian-Libertarian Value Change in Advanced Industrial Democracies’, Comparative Political Studies, 36 (3): 235–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fukuyama, F. (1995), ‘Confucianism and Democracy’, Journal of Democracy, 6 (2): 2033.Google Scholar
Gethin, R. (1998), Foundations of Buddhism, Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Gil de Zúñiga, H. and Valenzuela, S. (2011), ‘The Mediating Path to a Stronger Citizenship: Online and Offline Networks, Weak Ties, and Civic Engagement’, Communication Research, 38 (3): 397421.Google Scholar
Greif, A. (1994), ‘Cultural Beliefs and the Organizations of Society: A Historical and Theoretical Reflection on Collectivist and Individualistic Societies’, Journal of Political Economy, 102 (5): 912–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hsieh, J. F.-S. (2000), ‘East Asian Culture and Democratic Transition, with Special Reference to the Case of Taiwan’, Journal of Asian and African Studies, 35 (1): 2942.Google Scholar
Huntington, S. P. (1996), The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, New York: Touchstone.Google Scholar
Inglehart, R. (2000), ‘Changing values in the new millennium: Challenges to representative democracy.’ In Dan Brandstrom (ed.), Den Representativa Demokratins Framtid Uppsala, Sweden: Gidlunds Forlag, 19–74.Google Scholar
Inglehart, R. F. (2008), ‘Changing Values among Western Publics from 1970 to 2006’, West European Politics, 31 (1–2): 130–46.Google Scholar
Inglehart, R. and Catterberg, G. (2002), ‘Trends in Political Action: The Developmental Trend and the Post-Honeymoon Decline’, International Journal of Comparative Sociology, 43: 300–16.Google Scholar
Inglehart, R. and Welzel, C. (2005), Modernization, Cultural Change, and Democracy, New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Jordan, D. K. (1985), Gods, Ghosts, and Ancestors: Folk Religion in a Taiwanese Village, 2nd edn, Taipei: Caves Books.Google Scholar
Katz, P. R. (2003), ‘Religion and the State in Post-War Taiwan’, China Quarterly, 174, 395412.Google Scholar
Kim, D. J. (1994), ‘Is Culture Destiny? The Myth of Asia's Anti-Democratic Values’, Foreign Affairs, 73: 189–94.Google Scholar
Kirkland, R. (2004), Taoism: The Enduring Tradition, Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kittilson, M. C. and Dalton, R. J. (2011), ‘Virtual Civil Society: The New Frontier of Social Capital?’, Political Behavior, 33: 625–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lewis, V. A., MacGregor, C. A., and Putnam, R. D. (2013), ‘Religion, Networks, and Neighborliness: The Impact of Religious Social Networks on Civic Engagement’, Social Science Research, 42: 331–46.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Laliberté, A. (2004), The Politics of Buddhist Organizations in Taiwan: 1989–2003, New York, Routledge Curzon.Google Scholar
Lipset, S. M. (1959), ‘Democracy and Working-Class Authoritarianism’, American Sociological Review, 24 (4): 482501.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Norris, P., Walgrave, S., and Van Aelst, P. (2005), ‘Who Demonstrates? Antistate Rebels, Conventional Participants, or Everyone?’, Comparative Politics, 37 (2): 189205.Google Scholar
Oser, J. and Hooghe, M. (2013), ‘The Evolution of Citizenship Norms among Scandinavian Adolescents, 1999–2009’, Scandinavian Political Studies, 36 (4): 320–46.Google Scholar
Park, C. and Shin, D. C. (2006), ‘Do Asian Values Deter Popular Support for Democracy in South Korea?’, Asian Survey, 46 (3): 341–61.Google Scholar
Pattie, C. and Seyd, P. (2003), ‘Citizenship and Civic Engagement: Attitudes and Behaviour in Britain’, Political Studies, 51: 443–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pye, L. W. (1985), Asian Power and Politics: The Cultural Dimensions of Authority, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Schyns, P. and Koop, C. (2009), ‘Political Distrust and Social Capital in Europe and the USA’, Social Indicators Research, 96: 145–67.Google Scholar
Sen, A. (1999), ‘Human Rights and Asian Values: What Lee Kuan Yew and Le Feng Do Not Understand about Asia’, New Republic, 217: 3341.Google Scholar
Shah, D. V., Kwak, N., and Holbert, R. L. (2001), ‘“Connecting” and “Disconnecting” With Civic Life: Patterns of Internet Use and the Production of Social Capital’, Political Communication, 18: 141–62.Google Scholar
Shah, D. V., Cho, J., Eveland, W. P., and Kwak, N. (2005), ‘Information and Expression in a Digital Age: Modeling Internet Effects on Civic Participation’, Communication Research, 32: 531–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shin, D. C. (2012), Confucianism and Democratization in East Asia, New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Swigger, N. (2013), ‘The Online Citizen: Is Social Media Changing Citizens’ Beliefs About Democratic Values?’, Political Behavior, 35 (3): 589603.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tu, W. (1996), ‘Cultural Identity and the Politics of Recognition in Contemporary Taiwan’, China Quarterly, 148: 1115–40.Google Scholar
Van Deth, J. W. (2009), ‘New Modes of Participation and Norms of Citizenship’, Working Paper, University of Mannheim, Germany.Google Scholar
Weinstein, E. C. (2014), ‘The Personal Is Political on Social Media: Online Civic Expression Patterns and Pathways among Civically Engaged Youth’, International Journal of Communication, 8: 210–33.Google Scholar
Weller, R. P. (2000), ‘Living at the Edge: Religion, Capitalism, and the End of the Nation-State in Taiwan’, Public Culture, 12 (2): 477–98.Google Scholar
Welzel, C. (2011), ‘The Asian Values Thesis Revisited: Evidence from the World Values Survey’, Japanese Journal of Political Science, 13: 131.Google Scholar
Welzel, C. (2013), Freedom Rising: Human Empowerment and the Quest for Emancipation, New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Wright, A. F. (1962), ‘Values, Roles, and Personalities’, in Wright, A. and Twitchett, D. (eds.), Confucian Personalities, Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Yao, X. (2000), An Introduction to Confucianism, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar