The constructivism-inspired study on hegemony focuses on the dominant state's ability to shape the beliefs and values of ruling elites in secondary states as a basis of hegemony while paying less attention to the attitude of the mass public in secondary states toward hegemony and the effects of its ‘socialisation’ with hegemonic ideas. This article provides a conceptual framework for studying the relations between hegemony and the mass-public of secondary states and then subjecting it to a preliminary test against postwar Japan's cooperation with the United States on China policy.

The main argument of this article is that hegemony may be strengthened and maintained if the mass public of secondary states is socialised with hegemonic conceptions of world order, state identities and underlying ideologies, and acquires an independent constraint on hegemony. The mass public's socialisation with hegemonic ideas, which amounts to a cultural transformation in secondary states, may take place as a result of propagation by the dominant state and secondary state elites, or as a result of important international and domestic events caused by the hegemon, and then come to feed back on the political structures and processes of secondary states in ways conducive to the maintenance of hegemony. When hegemonic ideas are firmly embedded in the security culture of secondary states, ruling elites in those states may cooperate with the hegemon because they themselves genuinely embrace hegemonic ideas. More importantly, some ruling elites may cooperate with the hegemon out of political expediency as the hegemon-induced cultural transformation may change political structures and processes in such ways as to link the ruling elites' political legitimacy closely with secondary states' continued support for hegemony.