4 - Evaluating the Impact of Retributive Justice on Citizen Evaluations of Government Authorities in Rural China

Summary

Chapter 4 turns to the perspective of ordinary citizens and examines the ways in which retributive justice concerns shape citizen attitudes and behavior toward government authorities. Drawing on qualitative research conducted with a random sample of households in diverse communities across rural China, the chapter begins with narratives that ordinary people frequently use to explain what they expect from government authorities and generates hypotheses about retributive justice concerns. The chapter then tests whether the retributive justice concerns voiced by citizens in qualitative interviews indeed have a causal impact on citizen evaluations of government authorities. Through a series of experiments embedded in original, in-person field surveys administered in two rural regions of China, as well as an online survey of urban respondents, we see that citizens prefer government leaders who address citizen concerns about retributive justice by punishing corruption and malfeasance within the government. Even when government authorities fail on other dimensions, they can still garner approval from citizens when they show they are willing to engage in anti-corruption measures.