IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0273525.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Does political participation help improve the life satisfaction of urban residents: Empirical evidence from China

Author

Listed:
  • Li He
  • Kun Wang
  • Tianlan Liu
  • Tianyang Li
  • Baolin Zhu

Abstract

Studies have shown that political participation does not only affect the flow of public resources but also creates positive feedback on participants’ subjective perceptions. However, research on the relationship between political participation and the life satisfaction of Chinese urban residents is relatively scarce. Thus, this study investigates whether political participation helps improve the life satisfaction of Chinese urban residents. Based on 2577 samples of the 2015 Chinese Social Survey this study used the Ordinary least squares model, instrumental variable model, and propensity score matching model to explore the relationship between political participation and the life satisfaction of Chinese urban residents. The empirical results show that political participation can significantly improve the life satisfaction of urban residents. Compared with urban residents without political participation, the life satisfaction of the political participants was 0.145 units higher at a 0.05 level of significance. In addition, this improved effect varied in degree among different groups of urban residents and was more significant for females, members of the Communist Party of China, highly educated, and employed urban residents. In China, there is a significant relationship between political participation and the life satisfaction of urban residents, with the life satisfaction of urban residents improving significantly through political participation. There are differences in the level of this improved effect among different urban residents, and it is more significant for females, highly educated, members of the Communist Party, and employed urban residents. To improve the life satisfaction of Chinese urban residents, it is necessary to further broaden their political participation channels.

Suggested Citation

  • Li He & Kun Wang & Tianlan Liu & Tianyang Li & Baolin Zhu, 2022. "Does political participation help improve the life satisfaction of urban residents: Empirical evidence from China," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 17(10), pages 1-23, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0273525
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0273525
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0273525
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0273525&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0273525?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lorenz Blume & Jens Müller & Stefan Voigt, 2009. "The economic effects of direct democracy—a first global assessment," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 140(3), pages 431-461, September.
    2. Frey, Bruno S & Stutzer, Alois, 2000. "Happiness, Economy and Institutions," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 110(466), pages 918-938, October.
    3. Matthias Benz & Alois Stutzer, 2004. "Are Voters Better Informed When They Have a Larger Say in Politics? -- Evidence for the European Union and Switzerland," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 119(1_2), pages 31-59, April.
    4. Peggy Schyns, 1998. "Crossnational Differences in Happiness: Economic and Cultural Factors Explored," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 43(1), pages 3-26, February.
    5. Karp, Jeffrey A & Banducci, Susan A, 2008. "Political Efficacy and Participation in Twenty-Seven Democracies: How Electoral Systems Shape Political Behaviour," British Journal of Political Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 38(2), pages 311-334, April.
    6. Goodin, Robert & Dryzek, John, 1980. "Rational Participation: The Politics of Relative Power," British Journal of Political Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 10(3), pages 273-292, July.
    7. André Pirralha, 2018. "The Link Between Political Participation and Life Satisfaction: A Three Wave Causal Analysis of the German SOEP Household Panel," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 138(2), pages 793-807, July.
    8. Appleton, Simon & Song, Lina & Xia, Qingjie, 2005. "Has China crossed the river? The evolution of wage structure in urban China during reform and retrenchment," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(4), pages 644-663, December.
    9. Iddisah Sulemana & Elijah Agyapong, 2019. "Subjective well‐being and political participation: Empirical evidence from Ghana," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 23(3), pages 1368-1386, August.
    10. Radcliff, Benjamin, 2001. "Politics, Markets, and Life Satisfaction: The Political Economy of Human Happiness," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 95(4), pages 939-952, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Benjamin Radcliff & Gregory Shufeldt, 2016. "Direct Democracy and Subjective Well-Being: The Initiative and Life Satisfaction in the American States," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 128(3), pages 1405-1423, September.
    2. Stefan Voigt, 2011. "Positive constitutional economics II—a survey of recent developments," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 146(1), pages 205-256, January.
    3. Gebhard Kirchgässner, 2010. "Direkte Demokratie," CREMA Working Paper Series 2010-16, Center for Research in Economics, Management and the Arts (CREMA).
    4. Bjørnskov, Christian & Dreher, Axel & Fischer, Justina A.V., 2010. "Formal institutions and subjective well-being: Revisiting the cross-country evidence," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 26(4), pages 419-430, December.
    5. Bruno Frey, 2011. "Tullock challenges: happiness, revolutions, and democracy," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 148(3), pages 269-281, September.
    6. Stutzer Alois & Frey Bruno S., 2006. "Making International Organizations More Democratic," Review of Law & Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 1(3), pages 305-330, January.
    7. Gabriele Prati, 2023. "The Relationship Between Democracy and Subjective Well-Being as a Function of Anti-Democratic Attitudes: a Multilevel Analysis of 78 Countries Worldwide," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 18(5), pages 2605-2618, October.
    8. Chang Wen-Chun, 2008. "Toward Independence or Unification?," Peace Economics, Peace Science, and Public Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 13(2), pages 124-153, January.
    9. Francesca Acacia & Maria Cubel Sanchez, 2014. "Strategic voting and happiness," Chapters, in: Francesco Forte & Ram Mudambi & Pietro Maria Navarra (ed.), A Handbook of Alternative Theories of Public Economics, chapter 7, pages 160-176, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    10. Bruno S. Frey & Alois Stutzer, "undated". "The Role of Direct Democracy and Federalism in Local Power," IEW - Working Papers 209, Institute for Empirical Research in Economics - University of Zurich.
    11. Justina AV Fischer, 2010. "Accounting for Unobserved Country Heterogeneity in Happiness Research: Country Fixed Effects versus Region Fixed Effects," CEIS Research Paper 164, Tor Vergata University, CEIS, revised 28 May 2010.
    12. O'Donnell, Gus & Oswald, Andrew J., 2015. "National well-being policy and a weighted approach to human feelings," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 59-70.
    13. Lorenz Blume & Jens Müller & Stefan Voigt, 2009. "The economic effects of direct democracy—a first global assessment," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 140(3), pages 431-461, September.
    14. Appleton, Simon & Song, Lina, 2008. "Life Satisfaction in Urban China: Components and Determinants," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 36(11), pages 2325-2340, November.
    15. Badunenko, Oleg & Cordero, Jose M. & Kumbhakar, Subal C., 2021. "Are you slacking? Where do you and your country stand in the happiness pursuit?," MPRA Paper 108316, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. Michael Mitsopoulos & Theodore Pelagidis, 2017. "A model of constitutional design and corruption," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 44(1), pages 67-90, August.
    17. Stefan Voigt & Lorenz Blume, 2015. "Does direct democracy make for better citizens? A cautionary warning based on cross-country evidence," Constitutional Political Economy, Springer, vol. 26(4), pages 391-420, December.
    18. Lucía Macchia & Anke C. Plagnol, 2019. "Life Satisfaction and Confidence in National Institutions: Evidence from South America," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 14(3), pages 721-736, July.
    19. Benno Torgler & Christoph A. Schaltegger, 2005. "The Determinants of Political Discussion: How Important are Audit Courts and Local Autonomy?," CREMA Working Paper Series 2005-28, Center for Research in Economics, Management and the Arts (CREMA).
    20. Alexander Pacek & Benjamin Radcliff & Mark Brockway, 2019. "Well-Being and the Democratic State: How the Public Sector Promotes Human Happiness," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 143(3), pages 1147-1159, June.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0273525. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.