Political participation in China: the study of motivation on joining the Chinese communist party among the university students

Abstract

No one will disagree that every one of us should have the right to participate in political aspect. Under different political system, people have many channels of political participation. However, the pathway of political participation in China, under the ruling of Chinese Communist Party (CCP), is different from other democratic countries. Many scholars studied this topic in the past 15 years (Rosen, 1990; Bian, 1994; Walder, 1995; Shi, 1999; Bian, 2001; Chan, 2000; Guo, 2005). Nevertheless, the economic reform and political movement brought great changes to China since 1990s. These changes might affect the recruitment of the CCP member and political attitudes of the people, especially university students who are labeled as elites of the society. This study presents the political attitude of university students in joining the CCP. Through in-depth interviews, factors that led the students to join the CCP and how the image of the political party affected their decision are explored. The primary goal of this study is to explain the attitudes of the students toward political aspects. Throughout this study, the political conviction and the opportunity provided for the applicants acted as important factors in the motivation of joining the party. I argued that the role of the CCP as the ruling party and the failing faith in the education level among the university students result in the willingness to join the CCP among nearly half of the university students.