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Are Informal Education Facilities Effective Means for Generating Political Support? A Spatial Analysis *
Author(s) -
Hu Yue
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
social science quarterly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.482
H-Index - 90
eISSN - 1540-6237
pISSN - 0038-4941
DOI - 10.1111/ssqu.12589
Subject(s) - authoritarianism , obedience , politics , government (linguistics) , china , informal education , empirical research , survey data collection , public relations , political science , economic growth , public administration , sociology , higher education , democracy , economics , law , linguistics , philosophy , statistics , mathematics , epistemology
Objective Informal education based on public facilities, such as museums and memorials, is an important propaganda practice in authoritarian countries. However, the empirical research on this area is underdeveloped and relies on small and potentially biased samples. Method This study collects unique spatial opinion data of over 300 such informal education facilities in China merged with original survey data and conducts a systematic evaluation of this form of propaganda. Result The statistical results challenge the conventional expectation that more exposure to the informal education facilities would improve the citizens' support of and obedience to the government. Conclusion The findings reveal a backfire effect of informal education facilities in that more exposure to them reduces both citizens' political support and obedience.