Cultural values and political trust - A comparison of the People's Republic of China and Taiwan

Although researchers have found that political culture plays an important r ole in shaping people's preferences and that their preferences will in turn influence their attitudes towards government, the cultural impact of polit ical trust has been largely ignored. This article seeks to bring culture ba ck into the study of political trust. Using survey data gathered from the P eople's Republic of China and Taiwan, the analysis demonstrates that people with different cultural orientations react to similar governmental behavio r in different ways. The different institutional settings in the People's R epublic of China and Taiwan also make it possible to examine whether the im pact of culture on political trust can be reduced to structures and institu tions. Political culture has a significant impact on political trust, but i t can not be reduced to institutions or structures.