Is life satisfaction higher for citizens engaged in political participation: Analysis based on the Chinese social survey

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 17; no. 12; p. e0279436
• Main Authors: Shi, Shaocheng, Zhang, Zixian, Yang, Tianyi, Wang, Jiangyin, Li, Tianyang, Zhao, Jinxu, Liu, Tianlan, Wang, Kun, Yang, Mingyu, He, Li
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 30.12.2022; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Anniversaries; Biology and Life Sciences; China; Civil rights; Community Participation; Computer and Information Sciences; Decision making; East Asian People; Emotions; Happiness; Health Priorities; Humans; Institutionalization; Life satisfaction; Local government; Participation; People and Places; Personal Satisfaction; Physical Sciences; Political aspects; Political behavior; Political participation; Politics; Psychology; Public participation; Quality of life; Research and Analysis Methods; Respondents; Social aspects; Social capital; Social participation; Social Sciences; Surveys; Tolerance; China
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0279436

Political participation is an important component of civil rights. Several studies have shown that citizens' political participation not only influences the allocation of public resources, but also has a positive correlation with participants' life satisfaction. Recently, political participation has become increasingly frequent in China; however, the research on Chinese citizens' political participation and life satisfaction is insufficient. Therefore, this study examined the relationship between political participation and life satisfaction in the Chinese cultural context, and how this relationship varied under different conditions. Based on 8,475 respondents from the 2015 Chinese Social Survey, ordinary least squares modeling was used to investigate the relationship of Chinese citizens' political participation and their life satisfaction, and the differences that might exist in this relationship. Political participation was closely related to life satisfaction. Compared with non-political participants, the life satisfaction of political participants was 0.133 units higher, which was significant at the 1% level. Regarding the types of political participation, citizens engaged in institutionalized political participation had higher life satisfaction, whereas citizens engaged in non-institutionalized political participation had lower life satisfaction. Furthermore, two social capitals, namely social tolerance and social trust, were the mediating variables linking political participation to citizens' life satisfaction. In China, citizens engaged in political participation had higher life satisfaction, in contrast, citizens engaged in non-institutionalized political participation had lower life satisfaction.