Mass political interest (or apathy) in urban China

Based on our reassessment of existing studies on political interest and apa thy in various societies, we argue the urgent need for a more systematic an d focused examination of mass political interest-as psychological involveme nt in politics-in China. Utilizing data collected from a public opinion sur vey conducted in Beijing, China in late 1995, we intend to shed some light on the level and sources of political interest in contemporary China. Contr ary to the prevalent argument that most Chinese are politically apathetic, we have found that there was a rather high level of political interest with in our sample. We have also found that both conventional variables (i.e. ag e, gender, education, income, political efficacy, and dissatisfaction with government performance) and variables unique to the Chinese setting (i.e. b eing a farmer, becoming a private entrepreneur, joining the Chinese Communi st Party and holding leading position in the party/government) have signifi cant effects on the levels of political interest. (C) 1999 The Regents of t he University of California. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.