Cultural Origins of Diffuse Regime Support among East Asians: Exploring an Alternative to the Theory of Critical Citizens

Why do some Asians support their regime, while others do not? Do they do so due to the particular type of culture they experience in their daily lives? If culture matters significantly, does it shape their diffuse regime support directly or indirectly? To address these questions, this essay first introduces multidimensional conceptions of both culture and diffuse regime support, and then analyzes their empirical relationships, qualitatively and quantitatively, within the context of the third round of the Asian Barometer Surveys conducted in eleven countries. Results of this analysis reveal that the particular type of culture East Asians uphold significantly influences whether their regime perceptions become critical or deferential. The critical or deferential perceptions they possess, in turn, lead them to embrace or reject their regime. This important finding, that culture shapes regime support indirectly by affecting the way in which people perceive their regimes, challenges the popular theory of critical citizens, and calls for an alternative theory of regime support based on the prevalent types of culture in existence at the time.