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Comparing Political Trust in Hong Kong and Taiwan: Levels, Determinants, and Implications

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2009

TIMOTHY KA-YING WONG ,
HSIN-HUANG MICHAEL HSIAO  and
PO-SAN WAN
TIMOTHY KA-YING WONG
Affiliation:
Hong Kong Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies, Chinese University of Hong Kongkayingwong@cuhk.edu.hk
HSIN-HUANG MICHAEL HSIAO
Affiliation:
Center for Asia-Pacific Area Studies, Academia Sinica and National Taiwan University
PO-SAN WAN
Affiliation:
Hong Kong Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies, Chinese University of Hong Kong
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Abstract

Political trust is a cornerstone of political survival and development. This paper makes use of data from the 2006 AsiaBarometer Survey to examine the level of political trust in Hong Kong and Taiwan. It finds that the people of Hong Kong have a high level of trust in their government and judiciary, but a relatively low level of trust in their legislature. In contrast, the Taiwan people have a lower level of trust in all of their executive, judicial, and legislative branches, reflecting a serious problem with political confidence in Taiwan. A further analysis shows that institutional factors such as ratings of government performance, life satisfaction, and satisfaction with democratic rights and freedoms, and cultural factors such as interpersonal trust, post-materialism, and traditionalism have varying degrees of effect on the different domains of political trust in Hong Kong and Taiwan, but institutional factors appear to be more powerful than cultural factors in explaining the experiences of both societies.

Type
Research Article
Information
Japanese Journal of Political Science , Volume 10 , Issue 2 , August 2009 , pp. 147 - 174
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

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