威權體制下年輕人的政治態度 - 政大學術集成

全文

(1)International Master’s Program in Applied Economics and Social Development National Chengchi University Master Thesis. The Political Attitude of the Youth under the. 政治大 Authoritarian Regime 立. y. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. Nat. er. io. sit. Yuan Yuan Mei. n. al Advisor: Chung-min Tsai, i v Ph.D. Ch. n engchi U. May, 2017.

(2) Abstract The outline of this project begins with the exploration of basic idea of leadership and further linking it with Chinese political environment. Subsequently the transformational leadership model is used to analyze Chinese students’ perception of President Xi Jinping, while the traits of followers — in this case Chinese students — are defined using Robert Kelly’s followership model. The central piece of this research was to conduct survey among Chinese students, while the survey questionnaire was analytically designed to reveal the follower’s level of agreement with Xi Jinping’s policies as well as overall popularity. The survey data also helped indicate the types of followers and to examine relevant connections to their viewpoints, which aided in investigating their perception of Chinese president as a leader. This framework would. 政治大. conceivably be an effective attempt to indicate that how followers define themselves and how. 立. their standpoint conceives leadership. This study can not only help identify the popularity of. ‧ 國. 學. Chinese leader among students but also evaluate the effects of policies introduced by Xi Jinping. Finally, the research is included to understand to what extend current policies meet students’ expectations, which can predict the trend and help weigh future reforms, formulation of new. ‧. policies and development of the governing system.. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. i. i n U. v.

(3) Contents Abstract ................................................................................................................i Contents ............................................................................................................. ii List of Charts .................................................................................................... iii List of Tables ...................................................................................................... v 1. Introduction ........................................................................................................ 1 2. Review of Literature .......................................................................................... 3 2.1 Understanding Leadership and Political Leadership from a theoretical perspective .......................... 3 2.2. Leadership as a function of followership in theory ........................................................................... 6. 治政 2.4 Leadership of Xi Jinping .................................................................................................................. 12 大立 2.5 Followership ..................................................................................................................................... 12. 2.3 Personality Traits and Perception of Leadership ................................................................................ 9. ‧ 國. 學. 2.6 Follower Values ................................................................................................................................ 13 2.7 Active and Inactive followers ........................................................................................................... 13 2.8 Robert Kelley’s Model ...................................................................................................................... 14. ‧. 2.9 Political Attitudes among different groups ....................................................................................... 17. y. Nat. 2.10 China’s Authoritarian Regime ........................................................................................................ 19. sit. 3. Methodology ..................................................................................................... 19. al. er. io. 3.1 Rationale and Theoretical Framework .............................................................................................. 19. n. 3.2 Research design................................................................................................................................. 20. i n U. Ch. v. 3.3 Measures .......................................................................................................................................... 20. engchi 4. Research Results .............................................................................................. 21 4.1 Overview .......................................................................................................................................... 21 4.2 Followership ..................................................................................................................................... 24 4.3 Hypothesis Results ........................................................................................................................... 27 4.4 Questionnaire Results ...................................................................................................................... 29. 5. Conclusion ........................................................................................................ 54 References .............................................................................................................. 56 Appendix 1: Questionnaire (Chinese version)..................................................... 60 Appendix 2: Questionnaire (English version) ..................................................... 62. ii.

(4) List of Charts Chart 2-1 Leadership tree diagram ........................................................................................................... 4 Chart 2-2 Leader and Follower Centric .................................................................................................... 9 Chart 2-3 Categorization of followers under a leadership ...................................................................... 17 Chart 4-1 Gender difference of Question A1 ......................................................................................... 31 Chart 4-2 Educational difference of Question A1 ................................................................................. 31 Chart 4-3 Gender difference of question A2 ........................................................................................... 32 Chart 4-4 Educational difference of question A2 ................................................................................... 33 Chart 4-5Gender difference of question A3 ............................................................................................ 34 Chart 4-6 Educational difference of question A3 ................................................................................... 34. 政治大. Chart 4-7 Gender difference of question A4 ........................................................................................... 35 Chart 4-8 Educational difference of question A4 ................................................................................... 36. 立. Chart 4-9 Gender difference of question A5 ........................................................................................... 36. ‧ 國. 學. Chart 4-10 Educational difference of question A5 ................................................................................. 37 Chart 4-11 Gender difference of question A6 ......................................................................................... 37 Chart 4-12 Educational difference of question A6 ................................................................................. 38. ‧. Chart 4-13 Gender difference of question A7 ......................................................................................... 39 Chart 4-14 Educational difference of question A7 ................................................................................. 39. y. Nat. sit. Chart 4-15 Gender difference of question A8 ......................................................................................... 40. er. io. Chart 4-16 Educational difference of question A8 ................................................................................. 40 Chart 4-17 Gender difference of question B1 ......................................................................................... 41. n. al. Ch. i n U. v. Chart 4-18 Educational difference of question B1 .................................................................................. 41. engchi. Chart 4-19 Gender difference of question B2 ......................................................................................... 42 Chart 4-20 Educational difference of question B2 .................................................................................. 43 Chart 4-21 Gender difference of question B3 ......................................................................................... 43 Chart 4-22 Educational difference of question B3 .................................................................................. 44 Chart 4-23 Gender difference of question B4 ......................................................................................... 44 Chart 4-24 Educational difference of question B4 .................................................................................. 45 Chart 4-25 Gender difference of question B5 ......................................................................................... 45 Chart 4-26 Educational difference of question B5 .................................................................................. 46 Chart 4-27 Gender difference of question B6 ......................................................................................... 46 Chart 4-28 Educational difference of question B6 .................................................................................. 47 Chart 4-29 Gender difference of question B7 ......................................................................................... 48. iii.

(5) Chart 4-30 Educational difference of question B7 .................................................................................. 48 Chart 4-31 Gender difference of question B8 ......................................................................................... 49 Chart 4-32 Educational difference of question B8 .................................................................................. 49 Chart 4-33 Gender difference of question B9 ......................................................................................... 50 Chart 4-34 Educational difference of question B9 .................................................................................. 51 Chart 4-35 Gender difference of question B10 ....................................................................................... 51 Chart 4-36 Educational difference of question B10 ................................................................................ 52 Chart 4-37 Gender difference of question B11 ....................................................................................... 52 Chart 4-38 Educational difference of question B11 ................................................................................ 53. 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. iv. i n U. v.

(6) List of Tables Table 4-1 Overview results of questionnaire .......................................................................................... 22 Table 4-2 Effective followers ................................................................................................................. 24 Table 4-3 Yes-People ............................................................................................................................. 25 Table 4-4 Alienated followers................................................................................................................. 26 Table 4-5 Sheep Followers .................................................................................................................... 26 Table 4-6 Hypothesis 5:Younger people would be more open mind in terms of politics than the elder. 27 Table 4-7 Hypothesis 6: People with higher educational level would have higher political consciousness than people with lower educational level. ....................................................................... 27 Table 4-8 Hypothesis 7: Male would have higher political consciousness than female ......................... 28 Table 4-9 Four types of followers ........................................................................................................... 29. 政治大 Table 4-11 Perspective of Xi of four types of followers ......................................................................... 54 立 Table 4-10 Simple regression of age for each questionnaire .................................................................. 29. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. v. i n U. v.

(7) 1. Introduction The core incentive of this research is to explore the concept of leadership, especially transformational leadership and behaviors of followers in China. To begin with, the basic idea of leadership and personality traits are defined as well as explored in Chinese context, while connecting it with the traits of followers and their view of modern China’s most powerful man Xi Jinping. To define and categorize the followers, this research uses Robert Kelly’s model of followership, which is most relevant and applicable for identifying the different types of followers in Chinese universities, and how their perception of current Chinese President evolves according to their adherence to certain principles.. 政治大 be seen as a leader, one might立 need to take strong, decisive action, while in other cultures In different cultures, leadership is viewed in different ways, in some cultures, in order to. ‧. ‧ 國. leadership.. 學. consultation and a democratic approach may be the preferred approach to exercising effective. Traditionally, in some cases, Chinese leaders are expected to rank ethical considerations. y. Nat. above the achievement of profit (Ahmed, Kung, & Eichenseher, 2003). While, in other situations. sit. leaders are considered as the role models of social order (Lee, 1987, p. 30). Under Confucian. er. io. values effective leaders must take two roles, to maintain both order and harmony in the social. al. iv n C the head of a clan. As a result, leaders in these roles can expect h e n g c h i U respect, deference, and obedience from their followers without coercion (Littrell, 2007). n. structure because leadership is similar to the concept of headship, such as the head of a family or. Nowadays, the notion of leadership in China is based on several factors, including past experiences, social-cultural values and philosophical ideas, therefore current Chinese political leadership also falls under certain criteria, and their actions as well as motives behind certain policies are deeply rooted in their own experiences and traditional values. Since Xi Jinping became the supreme leader of the People’s Republic of China, the world witnessed some changes in China’s internal and foreign policy. Xi’s move to clean up corruption within the party greatly bolstered public confidence and support for Xi, contributing to him. 1.

(8) image as a strong leader. At the same time, China under Xi shows a more proactive strategy, and for the first time, China initiated an official propaganda inviting other nations to use the “China Model” as a reference. This is evidence that Chinese foreign policy has become more outward looking. Simultaneously, Xi’s “proactive” foreign policy approach represents a remarkable departure from that of his predecessor, Hu Jintao, who was often seen as following a policy of “inaction” (Cheng Li, Eve Cary, 2011). Xi’s administration has adopted a hardline approach towards the disputed territories. China under Xi has also been actively engaged in the construction of new global economic and financial institutions. Moreover, “One Belt, One Road” and “Asian Security Concept” initiatives. 政治大. are an extension of the “China model” and “Chinese values”.. 立. Taking everything into account, Xi is considered as an ‘action-man’, and China under Xi. ‧ 國. 學. does not wish to wait for favorable international conditions. The increase in China’s national capabilities implies that it is not necessary for China to act strictly in accordance with the. ‧. existing international situation. Instead, China under Xi’s leadership now possesses the confidence to construct its own favorable international conditions to maximize benefits to itself.. sit. y. Nat. al. er. io. Therefore, it is also interesting to explore how the locals in China view Xi Jinping, what. n. are the opinions of Chinese people towards Xi being an ethical, innovative, committed,. Ch. i n U. v. authoritative and respectable personality, as well as to examine how the masses can relate their. engchi. interests with the policies introduced by their leader. To analyze these factors, set of questions are carefully designed and added to the survey questionnaire, which can not only help discover the attitudes of people but can also observe to what extent people view President Xi Jinping is a transformational leader. In any society, students are considered as one of the core pillars, as they shape the ideas and are the driving force behind any movement in the social group, therefore it is important to evaluate the Chinese students’ perception of leadership in China and how they view the Chinese President Xi Jinping.. 2.

(9) 2. Review of Literature Having defined the research objectives and questions of inquiry, this chapter will delve into a detailed discussion of literature on leadership with a special emphasis on the ‘Political Leadership’ and the idea of ‘Followership’ in polities. Since the main objective of this research is to find out the perception of leadership, a section is dedicated to discuss the literature on leadership perception and what are some of the factors which shape the perceptions of followers. While much of the literature has focused on leadership in private sector management, an important question is to find out what are the traits of political leadership and what does theory, research and practice has to inform us about the ‘kind of leadership’ which exists in a country and the corresponding ‘followership’ which it entails.. 政治大 Most of the research and scholarly work on leadership has ignored the followership 立. aspect especially when it comes to political leadership; therefore it is pertinent to understand. ‧ 國. 學. followership in order to understand the perception of leadership and the particular type of leadership people associate themselves with. There is not enough research when it comes to. ‧. political leadership perception in China especially in the eyes of university students. The current research focuses on students with the aim to understand how younger generation views. y. Nat. sit. leadership and what traits of Xi Jinping they associate the most with when it comes to forming. er. al. n. they are.. io. their perceptions of him as the political leader of China and what kind of a follower they believe. Ch. The chapter is sub-divided into following sections:. engchi. 1. Theories of leadership & Political leadership. i n U. v. 2. Perception of Political leadership 3. Leadership and followership 4. Personality traits, perception and followership of political leaders 5. Theories of Followership 6. Robert Kelley’s Model of Followership 2.1 Understanding Leadership and Political Leadership from a theoretical perspective Leadership in the context of given study is assumed to mean political leadership. The biggest strength of this research is the lack of scholarly research on political leadership and 3.

(10) followership. Our reading of the idea of leadership and discussions we have come up with the following model of leadership which will be used and understood interchangeably with political leadership throughout this paper. 學 Chart 2-1 Leadership tree diagram. ‧. ‧ 國. 立. 政治大. y. Nat. The above figure demonstrates the factors which determine leadership. The personality. sit. traits of a leader and how they are perceived by the public (followers) and the political, social. er. io. and economic environment where this interplay takes place, determine the kind of leadership. al. n. iv n C Most of the research on leadership in general leadership in particular has focused on h e nandgpolitical chi U which exists in a group, organization or a society. The same holds true for political leadership.. either one of the two strands in the above model. Our review of the literature on leadership indicates that most studies have looked either at the personality traits or the environment in. which leaders exercise their influence. There is a need to understand leadership based on both perception of the leaders and the kind of followership which follows. In theory, political leadership is best understood by James McGregor Burns (1978) whose distinction between transformational and transactional leadership in terms of personality traits of the leaders and their interaction with followers is central to this study. Burn’s scientific study of leadership as a political phenomenon has become a currency in political leadership studies. Burns (1978) focuses on the psychological and ethical dimensions of political leadership. Based 4.

(11) on these dimensions he classifies leadership into two broad categories; transformational and transactional leadership. His focus is mainly on the relationship between leaders and their followers and a balance in this relationship (Burns, 2003). Transactional leadership is based on needs and is utilitarian in nature where leadership makes the provision of goods possible according to the bargain between followers and leaders. On the other hand, transformational leadership has a moral component which demands a higher meaning or purpose. Burns (2003) defines transactional leadership as one, where ‘one person takes the initiative in making contact with others for the purpose of an exchange of valued things. This is a kind of political leadership which is based on self-interest and basic needs, for. 政治大 a way that they raise each other’s moral ground and motivation (Burns, 2003). It is a type of 立 example demand for votes. Transformational leadership is when leaders engage with followers in political leadership that moves the society towards achieving higher long term collective goals. ‧ 國. 學. with an understanding of the followers. According to Burns (2003), this is a kind of leadership which understands followers in such a way so as to define their values in a meaningful way so. ‧. they could be moved towards a purposeful action. This typology of the concept of leadership has its basis purely in political science but has been borrowed by scholars working on leadership in. y. Nat. sit. management and other fields. Max Weber’s idea of ‘Charismatic Leadership’ fits into this. al. er. io. equation of transformational leadership and followership. He argues that, ‘a charismatic leader is. n. characterized by a strong personal appeal and determination, especially in crisis like situations. Ch. i n U. v. and challenges. But for Weber (1946) if “leadership fails to benefit followers, it is likely that…charisma will disappear”.. engchi. Much of the contemporary research on leadership has ignored the followership perspective. Our research aims to fill this gap by defining leadership perception in terms of followership as we shall explore later and provide a justification for. Similar views on charismatic leadership are shared by Willner (1984), Hollander and Offermann (1990) who studied charisma as a function of leader-followers bond. According to Willner (1984), it is not the leader or his qualities but the perception of leaders in the eyes of people (followers) that counts in generating charismatic leadership.. 5.

(12) 2.2. Leadership as a function of followership in theory Most of the scholars on leadership have ignored the idea of followership as a means to measure and assess the type and perception of leadership respectively. The present section will review some of the major theoretical paradigms of leadership before introducing the literature on followership and how it defines leadership. The reader will have a clear idea of two concepts by the end of this discussion; furthermore, it will develop a base for the followership model we are using for the purposes of current research. At the conceptual level, followership is described as a function of the follower, leader and situational variables (Thompson & Morris, 2006; Hersey, Blanchard &Johnson, 2008). It. 政治大 explanation of the idea of followership (Bass, 2008). Kelley (1992) has provided one of the most 立. should be also noted that just like there is no universal definition of leaders, there is no succinct comprehensive models of followership and categorized followers based on the kind of. ‧ 國. 學. engagement they have with leadership. Before exploring Kelley’s model in detail, which also serves as a backbone to this research, it is important to explore research surrounding. ‧. followership.. y. Nat. sit. Chaleff’s (2009) model suggests a characterization of followers according to follower. al. er. io. support for the leader and the challenges they pose for the leader. Courageous followers actively. n. participate in perceiving the leadership and associating themselves with them accordingly. This is. Ch. i n U. v. closely in line with Kelley’s (1992) model which divides followers into different categories.. engchi. These followers know when to dissociate themselves from the leadership, especially when it becomes clear to them that the common goal is not being served (Dvir &Shamir, 2003). Followers and followership are central to understand perception of leadership, after all the way followers identify themselves with a political leader in turn shows their perception of that leader whether it’s due to the personality traits, charisma, policies, authority or popularity of that leader. While some theories of leadership do not accommodate followership in explaining leadership others do so cursorily, while yet others give more importance to it. By looking at the current scholarship we can classify leadership theories according to the degree of their emphasis on followers and followership. 6.

(13) a. Personality Traits Approach Leader is at the heart of this approach. It takes into account the personal characteristics of a leader, for example; personality, motivation, physical appearance and intellect which enable individuals for leadership roles. (Kenny & Zaccaro, 1983; Harder, 2003) In the tradition of leadership research, traits approach hasn’t paid much attention to followers and followership in understanding leadership. The basic assumption of this theory is that the success or failure of a leader is independent of followers and followership. b. Transformational and Charismatic Leadership theories. 政治大 for the success or failure of a group, these theories do not completely discredit the role 立. The behavior of leaders is the main focus of these theories. Though they credit leaders played by followers. As discussed above, transformational leadership is the one which. ‧ 國. 學. bring about positive changes in a group, organization or at the societal level. Burns (2003) argues that this process transforms followers into leaders, where both become. ‧. effective and ethical. Charismatic leadership on the other hand sees leaders as yielding extraordinary powers of influence over followers, capacity to exert influence over. y. Nat. sit. followers through emotional attachment (Weber, 1947). An important aspect here is the. al. er. io. followers’ perception which is the key to maintaining the status of being a charismatic. n. leader. Conger & Kanungo (1987) are of the view that to maintain this image, leaders. Ch. i n U. v. must take risks, demonstrate their personal commitment and appear confident and knowledgeable.. engchi. c. Contingency Models Contingency models rest on the assumption that leaders’ effectiveness is contingent upon the situational elements, which includes followers too. There are two main theories towards that end. The Path-Goal Theory states that the leaders influence the perception of followers in terms of desirability of following a certain path to achieve a certain goal (House & Mitchell, 1974). If the followers are convinced that by completing a certain task they can achieve a desired objective, they will stay motivated. In a way this is how the followers perceive leadership, motivational or not. The style of leadership in this 7.

(14) context (directive, supportive, participative or achievement oriented) is determined by (me) followers’ nature (needs, values, abilities and personalities) and (ii) nature of the task to be completed. Situational leadership theory posits that the most effective leadership style is a factor of level of readiness of followers, where readiness level is gauged by the ability and willingness of the followers to achieve a given task (Hersey, Blanchard and Johnson, 2008). d. Leader-Member Exchange Theory (LMX) LMX is a kind of parameter which measures the relationships between leaders and followers based on various variables (Goertzen & Fritz, 2004). In a high LMX (high. 政治大 the followers and leaders, hence followers are more committed, productive and satisfied 立 quality relationship) there are high levels of trust, support and mutual influence between as compared to those with low LMX. (Grestner & Day, 1997). ‧ 國. 學. e. Information Processing Theory. ‧. This theory examines the cognitive processes behind the behavior of leaders and followers. The followers make a sense of the world around them created by leaders. y. Nat. sit. (Brown, Scott & Lewis, 2004). Leaders make sense of the cognitive world to see what. al. er. io. kind of behavior they should use while the followers judge the effectiveness of. n. leadership based on the information which tells them whether leader is responsible for. Ch. i n U. v. higher performance or not (Lord & Maher, 1991). This is particular relevant for the. engchi. current research where economic performance of leaders is one of the main elements which help people make perception of leadership in China. f. Social Identity Theory This is the only theoretical framework in the context of given research which lays complete focus on the followers in defining and assessing leadership (Lord & Brown, 2004). Van Knippenberg & Hogg (2004) explain how the effectiveness of leadership depends on leaders’ processing of followers’ self-image. Successful leaders tend to modify their messages and persona with the changing social identity of followers. Some followers are more self-centered, while others associate emotionally with the leaders. 8.

(15) Lord & Brown (2004) have shown in their research that most effective leaders tend to shift the focus of their followers from more individualist concerns to collective goals and aspirations. The purpose of exploring these theoretical frameworks was to understand the levels at which leaders and followers interact and perceive each other. A survey of these theories will help readers understand the rationale of the current research which combines perception of leaders with the relative followership using Kelly’s (1992) followership model. Here is a graphical representation of above theories to understand their relative focus on followers.. 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. i n C hSource: Johnson (2009) engchi U. v. Chart 2-2 Leader and Follower Centric. 2.3 Personality Traits and Perception of Leadership Most of the research on personality traits of political leaders hold true for democratic societies with electoral processes. Since the present study deals with China, which has an authoritarian regime with elements of democracy at the very lowest levels of governance we are assuming that most of the personality traits discussed here will serve as a general guideline for this study too. It will be interesting to discuss what the current and past research has to say about the role which personality traits of political leaders play in shaping the public perception of leadership styles and the corresponding followership which followers associate themselves with.. 9.

(16) Personal Appeal has appeared time and again as one of the most important determining factor for the public perception of leadership style. From Weberian notion of Charismatic leadership to an investigation into the role played by appearance and visual imagery of the leaders have been discussed and concluded by researchers to influence their image building or personal appeal among the followers (Little et al, 2007 ; Lawson, 2010; Brusattin, 2012). Others have mentioned communication-style or emotional expression to hold equal water in determining the public perception of leaders (Kaid & Johnston, 2001; Bystron e al, 2004; Stroud et al, 2005). Image-making and political branding also makes up the synthesis of much of the research in the field (Newman, 1999; Grabe, Bucy, 2009; Spiller & Bergner, 2011). But the question remains can we really generalize these research outcomes for any case? Which aspects of personality. 政治大 kind of followership they assume? These questions will be answered by this research in the 立 matters the most to the followers in deciding what attributes to attach to a political leader and context of Chinese leadership under Xi Jinping.. ‧ 國. 學. Dinas (2008), Caliendo (2011) & Jones et al. (2013) have concluded that from the view. ‧. point of political science, the notion of appeal could be attributed to the realm of electoral processes and strategic communication techniques used by political leaders. The concept of. y. Nat. sit. “appeal” as defined by Merriam-Webster Thesaurus refers to the power of irresistible attraction,. al. er. io. magnetism, captivation and enchantment (Merriam-Webster, 2014). The biggest gap in the. n. literature when it comes to assessing the perception of followers on the basis of personality traits. Ch. i n U. v. of political leaders is that they haven’t defined and properly calculated those feelings. Even a. engchi. specialized tool called ‘Feeling thermometer’ (Nelson, 2008); a survey tool popular among researchers to under the politicians public perception is not equipped enough to explain these feelings. Partisanship, ideology and social class have been the most widely used parameters in political science to gauge the personal appeal of politician and leaders. Hecker (2004) asserts that “the image of a candidate is essentially in the eyes of the beholder” and thus perception is driven by followers not leaders. What really matters is how the imagery and persona of a leader is perceived by the followers (Garzia, 2011). The problem with literature on personality traits of leaders is that there is a lack of consensus over which qualities or attributes are processed by followers in shaping their perception of the leaders. One set of scholars has put too much emphasis on the following traits of leaders when it comes to political leadership and building 10.

(17) public perception (Funk, 1996; Miller et al, 1986; Shanks, 1996; Hayes, 2005). a. Integrity b. Reliability c. Intelligence d. Leadership ability e. Empathy Yet others have adopted a more comprehensive approach by using the “big five”, which is a five-dimensional personality model (Gerber, 2011, John & Srivastava, 1999). In the Big Five Theory, following personality traits are defined as the most effective in shaping public perception of the political leaders:. 立. a. Extraversion. 學. ‧ 國. b. Agreeableness. 政治大. c. Conscientiousness d. Emotional stability. ‧. e. Openness to experience. y. Nat. sit. These parameters capture the five major dimensions of human personality (John et al,. al. er. io. 2008) Mondak (2010) who used this approach in his analysis of personality traits of political. n. leaders is of the view that the Big Five Approach is an all-encompassing measure to aggregate. Ch. i n U. v. the most essential traits of the political leaders which are processed by followers in the context of. engchi. defining leadership styles. Among other advantages of this approach include its multidisciplinary nature where it is being employed by political psychology (Caprara et al, 2002). One question comes to mind of a researcher here, how would charisma fit into this equation? There is a growing consent among scholars that charisma is not particularly a trait of leaders’ personalities, but it has more to do with the relationship between leaders and followers (Shamir et al, 1993; Howel & Shamir, 2005). However in the research, the interaction between the five big traits and charisma is missing somehow. The current research will try to narrow this gap by assessing the perception of followers in terms of not only personality traits but also charisma. This brings us to the discussion of the concept of followership in literature and finally the model for current research which works in an opposite direction – defining transformational/charismatic 11.

(18) leadership in terms of followership. It is highly misleading to put a tag of transformational, transactional or charismatic leadership without first identifying the type of followership which exists in a society (Chinese’ students for the purposes of our research). 2.4 Leadership of Xi Jinping An article in 2014 Wall Street Journal mentioned Xi begins by “Does Chinese leader Xi Jinping really want to be the next Mao Zedong? Or is it Deng Xiaoping, the pragmatic architect of China’s market reforms, that he’s modeling himself after?” The answer should be neither. Xi is not a dogmatic leader; on the contrary, he is flexible and adaptable. He should present a clearly articulated and coherent vision for China’s political trajectory if he wants to become a great leader in Chinese history.. 立. 2.5 Followership. 政治大. ‧ 國. 學. The maxim, “Always be a leader, never a follower!” is a thing of past and might sound true for bureaucratic and private organizations, but when we talk about polities, ground realities are. ‧. different. Political leaders exist because there is an active followership, from which they drive legitimate authority and exercise influence and steer policies. Brown (2003) has observed that. y. Nat. sit. leaders in their respective organizations and fields (which also include polities) are no longer the. al. er. io. only source of important information about functions and therefore can’t expect to be followed. n. blindly by their followers. The same is true for political leaders, even in a tightly controlled. Ch. i n U. v. country like China where leaders feel pressured to be accountable to their followers and need to. engchi. maintain an active followership for their policies and agendas to become a reality. Therefore it’s very important to understand the theoretical and practical aspects of followership in the context of leadership and perception of followers. The literature in followership can be roughly divided into three broad themes: a. Follower motivations b. Follower values and trusts c. Characteristics of active and inactive followers d. According to Hughes (1998), most followers don’t need leader to motivate them, but they motivate themselves. Motivation of followers depends on the relationship between the follower 12.

(19) and the leader and how the personal traits (values) on two sides match up. Scholars have concluded that in case there is a similarity in the value systems of leadership and followers, the need to motivate followers might not be as high since the followers are already drive by the bond which exists between them (Mumford, Dansereau & Yammarino, 2000). Research on Charismatic leadership have confirmed this point of view, suggesting that followers’ selfconcepts may also play a role in determining their motivations to follow certain leaders (Howell & Shamir, 2005). Green (2000) has outlined three conditions that must exist for the followers to stay highly motivated. First is the ‘confidence’ that they can do the job which is required of them. Second is the ‘trust’ in their leader to peg outcomes to their performance. Lastly, need to be ‘satisfied’ by the outcome they get.. 立. 2.6 Follower Values. 政治大. Values are very important to determine the preferences of followers for the different types. ‧ 國. 學. of leaderships. Referring to our initial model of leadership environment, followers’ values in addition to their personal traits can have an influence on not only their own effectiveness but also. ‧. the climate in which they interact with the leadership (Hanges, Offerman, &Day, 2001). There is no debate on the fact that followers and leaders work better when their values match. Gardner et. y. Nat. sit. al (2005) is of the view that when leaders model their values, identity, emotions and goals. al. er. io. effectively, there are more chances of an authentic followership. Research by Ehrhart and Klein. n. (2001) examined the relationship between leaders and followers to determine how values and. Ch. i n U. v. personality influence this relationship. One of the most important finding of their research was. engchi. that those followers who identified themselves as risk-takers and result-oriented preferred Charismatic leadership. The same could be held true for followers who indicated their interest in decision making. 2.7 Active and Inactive followers A few scholars have looked into the characteristics of followers in order to distinguish between good, bad and the ugly. The most groundbreaking and influential research to date is the one carried out by Kelley (1988, 1992). Before discussion the Kelley’s Model of followership, it is important to understand what other researchers have to say about the characteristics of followers and how it influences their perception of leadership and the style of leadership they 13.

(20) correspond to. Masciulli, Molchanov and Knight (2009) are of the view that it is the followers who create leaders. Leadership according to Smirich and Morgan (1982) is a socially constructed phenomenon. They argue that it is a product of interaction being the leaders and those led, in a political leadership environment. Considered that way, leadership is the ability to change the social reality of those led (followers). The followers in that sense have the responsibility to the reception of leader’s direction and her reality. This process of interaction forces followers to surrender to the directions of the leader and shape their reality according to the world created by leaders, especially political leaders. This acceptance is thus crucial for the success of organizations and political systems. It is for this reason that the current scholarship is focusing. 政治大. more on followership patterns to understand leadership than on leadership itself.. 立. 2.8 Robert Kelley’s Model. ‧ 國. 學. Since the research is to distinguish Chinese young people’s political attitudes, we use the model of Robert Kelley to identify types of followers. Furthermore, the research would analyze types of followers.. ‧. the perspective of leader among four types of followers to proof the political attitude of different Robert Kelley (1988) was one of first researchers to hint upon the. y. Nat. sit. importance of followers in understanding leadership styles and perception. Before Kelley, most. al. er. io. of the scholarship on leadership had ignored follower as active stakeholders in leadership studies.. n. Kelley has created a scheme which distinguishes followers into five categories. He justifies on. Ch. i n U. v. the basis that different followers can have different roles under leadership. These types are: a. Sheep Followers:. engchi. Sheep followers never complain or criticize negatively about leaders and their decisions. They just obey the orders and do the tasks assigned to them. No questions asked. Due to this absolute obedience, they never tend to take responsibilities or initiatives. In the context of political systems, those people who never participate in government policy making or show indifference to the political decisions of the leaders, fall into this category. (Kelley, 1988) Because the sheep followers suppose to obey the orders, the research believes that sheep followers would have positive perspective of the leader. Hypothesis 1 Sheep followers would have positive perspective of the leader. 14.

(21) b. Yes followers Just as sheep people do not take initiatives, so do Yes-people. However, what distinguishes them is their complete acceptance of leaders and their decisions. They tend to consider leaders as a Source of inspiration (inspirational-motivational perspective). They are the ones who reassure leaders in practice of their leadership and the decisions they take. In political systems, people who vote for the same political party or affiliate themselves with same leaders could be considered as yes-people. Speaking of China, people who affiliate themselves with the leadership of Xi Jinping and his decisions to reform economy and society without questioning could be put under this category. Yes-people believe that leaders are leaders because they are the most able people to govern.. 政治大 Because Yes followers are those who always support same party and leader without 立. questioning, the research assume that Yes followers in China would have positive perspective of. ‧ 國. Hypothesis 2. 學. the leader.. ‧. Yes followers would have positive perspective of the leader.. y. Nat. sit. c. Alienated followers. al. er. io. According to Robert Kelley, alienated followers tend to be independent thinkers and do not. n. shy-away from criticizing the leaders and their decision-making. But despite their disagreements. Ch. i n U. v. and frustrations, they do not make an effort to change the system. Some non-voters and people. engchi. who are not active on the political scene could be regarded as alienated followers. Because of the alienated followers are more likely to disagree and question the leader, the research expect them to have more negative perspective of the leader compare to sheep and yes followers. Hypothesis 3 Alienated followers would have negative perspective of the leader. d. Survivor Followers Those people who exists within an organization but tend to look for safety nets for the sake 15.

(22) of their survival. Their position towards following leadership is oriented towards securing their social, political or economic position intact. They are very adaptable to changes, just to make sure their position is not jeopardized. e. Effective Followers They are essential to exist for the successful functioning of an organization or a political system. Robert Kelley (1988) thus defines them as enthusiastic, intelligent and self-reliant. In the context of political systems, these are the people who actively participate in political activism and show their interest in political decisions taken by leadership. In order to respect their own value-systems, they would stand-up to oppose the leaders.. 政治大 in the decision made by the leader, it is hard to be persuade in authoritarian regime; thus, the 立. According to the literature, effective followers are tend to be more active and interested. research assume that the effective followers would have more negative perspective of the leader Hypothesis 4. Effective followers would have negative perspective of the leader.. Nat. y. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. compare to sheep and yes followers.. sit. This could be depicted in the graphical form as follows to serve as a model to understand. al. er. io. followership and will be used for the purpose of the current study which will see what kind of. n. followership exist among Chinese university students and what kind of traits they attribute to the leadership of President Xi Jinping.. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. In conclusion, the research assume that followers with critical/independent thinking would tend to have more negative perspective of the leader; on the contrary, people who are more dependent and with uncritical thinking would have higher evaluation of the leader.. 16.

(23) 立. 政治大. ‧ 國. 學. Chart 2-3 Categorization of followers under a leadership. y. sit. Nat. 2.9 Political Attitudes among different groups. ‧. Source: Robert Kelley (1988)’s. er. io. As the social, cultural, and political as well as economic consequences of market reform. al. iv n C new—the way of the citizen—are sharpening. Chinese h e n Some i U scholars such as Zhou Tianyong, h c g the vice director of research of the Central Party School, argue that gradual political reform as n. become increasingly manifest, tensions between the old—the way of the comrade—and the. well as repression of those pushing for overly rapid change over the next twenty years will be essential if China is to avoid an overly turbulent transition to a middle class dominated polity. In the other words, younger generation has been changing the political attitudes. In view of the fact that the growth of the democratic system was advocated by the world, the young people had no deep feelings about the authoritarian politics and have more chance to approach the experience of democracy than in the old times, thus making their political attitude more open among younger generation. Moreover, the rapid growth of the information spread makes the young people have more pluralistic values, and the vision of political affairs is broader. Thus this study assumes that the younger generation will have a more open political attitude than the older 17.

(24) generation. To identify the openness of political attitudes, we concern the frequency of criticize and question the decision of the leader. The research is using questions of “How frequently have you criticized Xi Jinping’s decisions either publicly or privately?” and “Have you ever found that Xi Jinping is wrong?” Hypothesis 5 Younger people would be more open mind in terms of politics than the elder. There is a strong evidence that educated citizens are more likely to care about politics and to vote (Verba and Nie 1972); therefore, the research assume that people with higher educational. 政治大 research measure the political consciousness by using question of 立. level would have higher political consciousness than people with lower educational level. The ” How interested are you in. politics of China?” and “How concerned do you feel about China’s Future?”.. ‧ 國. 學. Hypothesis 6. ‧. People with higher educational level would have higher political consciousness than people with lower educational level.. y. Nat. sit. People with higher educational level would obtain more information and knowledge. al. er. io. compares to those with lower educational level, and we assume that people with more. n. information would concern more about politics. Thus, the hypothesis believes that people with. Ch. i n U. v. higher educational level would have highrt political consciousness. The research measure the. engchi. political consciousness by using question of ” How interested are you in politics of China?” and “How concerned do you feel about China’s Future?”. Hypothesis 7 Male would have higher political consciousness than female This research will test the idea of “male would have higher political consciousness than female.” (Campbell, 1954: 187-193; Finifter, 1970: 389-400). The research measure the political consciousness by using question of ” How interested are you in politics of China?” and “How concerned do you feel about China’s Future?”.. 18.

(25) 2.10 China’s Authoritarian Regime When we consider what makes authoritarian regime in China attractive, Stefan Halper(2010) mentioned that it is “the power of the market plus the stability of authoritarian rule”. The government offers certain liberal economic policy, such as Free Trade Zone for foreign investment as well as labor force support, coming with infrastructure development. Chinese government is creating balance between the people and the government by the new formula of capitalist bargain. China is maintaining the followership by improving living standards for the people and the economic growth. Robert Kagan says that ”You can have whatever private life you want; no one’s going to come in and tell you what to read or how to think as long as you keep it to yourself; you can make money, you can prosper-just keep your nose out of politics or we’ll cut it off.”. 立. 政治大. Confucian culture also plays an important role in building China’s authoritarian regime,. ‧ 國. 學. which reflects the nature order of society over generations. In comparison, western assume government to insure people have right of politics and people should have the duty to exercise. ‧. those right by express and debate; however, Confucian societies support that ruler has responsibility to protect people while people have a duty to obey without doubt.. al. er. io. sit. y. Nat. 3. Methodology. n. This chapter is divided into three parts; research framework, data resource and the object of. Ch. study, and the research method and variables.. engchi. i n U. v. 3.1 Rationale and Theoretical Framework Based on Robert Kelley (1988)’s theory of followership, the basic assumption of this research is that leadership exists because there is followership. Kelley and many other researchers on political leadership have put a special emphasis on the ideas of followership, the qualities, characteristics and corresponding types of followers. For this purpose the research will assess how followers (Chinese students) perceive leadership (Chinese President Xi Jinping). Kelly has defined different categories of followers based on motivation, inspiration, charisma and engagement with leadership. Based on this relationship, he puts followers into following categories: 1. Sheep-followers, 2. Yes-people, 3. Alienated followers, 4. Effective followers 19.

(26) 3.2 Research design The research surveyed 269 Chinese students from more than 50 cities to understand Chinese students’ perception of leadership and current President Xi Jinping. The most part of survey was conducted by local students on campus and surveyed in person, while the rest was shared using social networking app “WeChat”. The questionnaire was translated into Chinese in order to provide better understanding to the respondents. In order to improve the accuracy of data and acquire honest and candid responses, the respondents were informed that this survey is merely a class project and will not in way be officially used. Despite initial hurdles and some students complaining the questions to be sensitive, the overall response rate was good and finally after a struggling one week, required number of respondents successfully submitted their response.. 政治大 The respondents included 141 males (52.41%) and 128 females (47.59%). The survey 立. contains personal information such as age, gender, and education level. Variable “age” is an open. ‧ 國. 學. question however we excluded the data which is over 35 and under 17 so as to prevent from bias; variable “gender” would become a dummy variable and we take 1 as male and 0 as female;. ‧. variable “education level” has been divided into 5 levels: college(under bachelor), bachelor,. sit. y. Nat. master, and Ph.D.. er. io. Beside personal information, the survey contains two parts, including (1) Political. al. iv n C where students have to indicate their degree U the statements, as of (1)extremely h eofnagreement i with h c g disagree to (5)extremely agree. From the first part we could determine the identity of our n. followership and (2) Perception of Xi Jinping, all of the questions are 5-points scale questions,. questionnaire subjects; furthermore, according to the first part, we could divide them into four types of follower (Sheep-Followers, Yes-People, Alienated Followers, and Effective Followers) in terms of leadership based on Robert Kelley’s (1988) theory of followership. In the second part of the survey, we demonstrate Chinese students’ perception of Xi Jinping, including different aspects such as whether he is admirable, respectable, or ethical. 3.3 Measures This research is using multi-regression to test the relation between followership and perception of leader. To sum up, we can describe the model by the following formula: leadership 20.

(27) = f (followership). In the research, we use the questions of the first part (followership) as the independent variable, and the question of second part (perception of Xi Jinping) as dependent variable, to demonstrate what kind of perception of Chinese President Xi is related to each type of follower. Moreover, the research will also run the regression between personal information and perception of Xi Jinping in order to understand the perceptions of different ages, gender, and education level. The research would first using statistical model to test the differences among all types of groups, including different gender, educational level, and age, in order to understand the political attitude of each groups. Many types of statistical tool would be used in the research, including. 政治大. simple regression, T-test, fixed-effect regression, and multi-regression, so as to dissociate certain. 立. effect and find out the differences.. ‧ 國. 學. Furthermore, the research is using more than one question as the independent variables to test the hypothesis, so that the hypothesis could have a comprehensive result.. ‧. 4 Research Results. y. Nat. sit. This chapter is divided into four parts. Firstly the research gives an overview of all the. er. io. questionnaires and gives a brief introduction. Secondly, the research would analyze all of the. al. iv n C and educational level. Thirdly, the research show theU h ewould i results of three hypothesis mentioned h n c g in chapter two. Most important of all, the research will test the relation between four types of the n. questionnaires to compare and observe the average scores of each groups, including age, gender,. followers and perception of leader in section four. 4.1 Overview According to the data summary, the average age of our questionnaire subjects is 22.85, and the education level is between college and PhD level. Most of the respondent’s education level is Bachelors (45.72%) and Masters (38.28%), whereas PhD and College students accounted for 9.29% and 7.06% respectively. For all the questions, the average score is between 2.23 to 3.86, which means people choose disagree and agree in general. The lowest average score (2.23) is the question of “How frequently do you report your problems to the concerned authorities to change 21.

(28) the way things are?”, and the highest average score (3.86) is the question of “Xi Jinping personality is respectable.” On the other hand, the question of” Xi Jinping is admirable.” has the highest standard deviation (1.445), which means people are more tend to choose extreme answer, strongly disagree and strongly agree, compare to other questions; the question of “How influential have your friends and family been in your perception about Xi Jinping?” has the lowest standard deviation (0.847), which means people tend to choose the average score (2.76). Table 4-1 Overview results of questionnaire Question. Questionnaire. Average. A1. How interested are you in politics of China?. 3.1070. A2. How influential have your friends and family. A3. How frequently have you criticized Xi. 政治 2.7565 大 been in your perception about Xi Jinping? 立 2.5387. deviation. Variable name. 0.9268. Interested~c. 0.8475. Family_eff~t. 1.3324. Critisized~i. 學. ‧ 國. number. Standard. Jinping’s decisions either publicly or. Have you ever found that Xi Jinping is. al. How frequently have you taken any initiative. n. A6. io. wrong?. Ch. to change the way things are? A7. 1.0867. Agree_xi. 2.4059. Wrong. v ni. 3.2103. 1.2867. Change_sit~n. 2.2325. 1.1521. report_sit~n. 3.7897. 1.0488. concern_future. engchi U. How frequently do you report your problems. 1.3407. sit. A5. Nat. Jinping?. 3.1624. er. Do you agree with all the decisions of Xi. ‧. A4. y. privately?. to the concerned authorities to change the way things are? A8. How concerned do you feel about China’s Future?. B1. The leadership of Xi JinPing is ethical.. 3.7712. 1.2792. ethical_xi. B2. Xi JinPing can be trusted for the progress of. 3.8044. 1.2746. trust_xi. 3.8635. 1.2501. respectable. China. B3. Xi JinPing personality is respectable.. 22.

(29) Question. Standard. Questionnaire. Average. B4. Xi JinPing is admirable.. 3.2472. 1.4459. admirable. B5. Xi JinPing motivates Chinese People.. 3.6790. 1.2982. motivates~-e. B6. Xi JinPing inspire enthusiasm for the. 3.6974. 1.3126. inspire_ch~a. 3.5793. 1.3334. commitment. 3.4059. 1.3681. xi_is_auth~y. 政治 3.5609 大 Xi JinPing is open to立 new ideas/approaches 3.5018. 1.2892. Innovative. 1.3767. xi_is_open. number. deviation. Variable name. progress of China B7. Xi JinPing demonstrate commitment to goals of Chinese people.. B8. Xi JinPing is an authority in Chinese politics and economy. B9 B10. Xi JinPing’s policies are innovative.. ‧ 國. B11. Xi JinPing is critical regarding mistakes of. 3.7048. 學. in order to solve problems.. 1.1649. Critical_h~s. his administrative officers in public.. ‧. y. Nat. The results of the survey indicated that most of the students, around fifty-percent, showed. sit. interest in politics, while nineteen percent answered that they are very interested in politics of. er. io. China. Around 49% of the respondents believed that they have been somewhat influenced by. al. iv n C students claimed to have been independent and notU h ethinker i been influenced by others. However, h n c g it doesn’t indicate that they often criticize Xi Jinping, as most respondents, 32% ‘rarely’ and 25% n. their friends and family members in shaping their perception about Xi Jinping. While 30% of the. ‘never’ publicly or privately criticized Xi’s decisions. Furthermore most of the Chinese students seem to agree with Xi Jinping’s policies and 32% of them ‘never’ and 29% ‘rarely’ found that Xi Jinping is wrong. Consequently, most of them ‘never’ or ‘rarely’ took any initiative to report their problems to the concerned authorities or take any action to change the way things are, which suggests that most fall under the criteria of sheep-followers or yes-people. However, there is positive indication that most of the students 45% very concerned and 26% extremely concerned about the future of China, which shows that there is a constructive trend among students to positively engage in politics.. 23.

(30) Furthermore, the study reveals that most students believe that Xi Jinping is trustworthy, ethical and respectable leader, as well as rather critical regarding mistakes of his administrative officers in public, which clearly indicates that most respondents acknowledge and praise Xi’s anti-corruption policies and 76% of the students consider Xi’s as an ethical leader, while 77% of them believe that Xi Jinping can be trusted for the progress of China. It is important to point out that most students can associate their interests with the interests and policies of their leader, as 73.8% of the respondents believe that Xi Jinping demonstrates commitment to goals of Chinese people. Moreover, 74% of the surveyed students believe that Xi inspire enthusiasm for the progress of China and at the same time motivates. 政治大. Chinese people, whereas 72% of the respondents consider Xi’s policies to be innovative.. 立. 4.2 Followership. ‧ 國. 學. In this section, followed by the formula of leadership=f(followership), the research uses the perception of Xi Jingping(11 questionnaires in Part B) as dependent variable and personality. ‧. of followers(4 type of followers) as independent variable to run the simple regression in order to. y. Nat. realize how different types of followers consider the leader.. sit. 4.2.1 Effective Followers. er. io. Based on the literature review, the research use the sum score of “Have you ever found that. al. iv n C ‘Effective followers’. The result showshthat effective followers e n g c h i U have significant effect on the perception of leader Xi Jingping under α=0.1% level. Furthermore, effective followers have n. Xi Jinping is wrong?” and “How concerned do you feel about China’s Future?” to identify. negative effect on the perception of leader, especially question 10” Xi JinPing is open to new ideas/approaches in order to solve problems.”(-0.4144), question 4” Xi JinPing is admirable.”(0.3926), and question 5” Xi JinPing motivates Chinese People.”(-0.3800) have the strongest negative effect. In the other words, effective followers would consider leader less open-mind to new idea, less admirable, and less motivates Chinese People. Table 4-2 Effective followers. Effective. Q1. Q2. Q3. Q4. Q5. Q6. -.3163***. -.3584***. -.3436***. -.3926***. -.3800***. -.3600***. 24.

(31) Followers Effective. Q7. Q8. Q9. Q10. Q11. -.3697***. -.3557***. -.3498***. -.4144***. -.2434***. Followers Note. *p<0.05. **p<0.01. ***p<0.001. 4.2.2 Yes-People The research uses the sum score of the questions “How influential have your friends and family been in your perception about Xi Jinping?”, “Do you agree with all the decisions of Xi Jinping?”, and “How frequently have you taken any initiative to change the way things are?” to. 政治大 effect on the perception of leader 立under α=0.1% level.. identify ‘Yes-People’. According to the 11 simple regression results, Yes-People has positive When we observe the coefficient, some questions have greater coefficient, for example,. ‧ 國. 學. question 6” Xi JinPing inspire enthusiasm for the progress of China” and question 7 ”Xi JinPing demonstrate commitment to goals of Chinese people.”. Thus, we could say Yes-people would. ‧. consider Xi Jingping inspire enthusiasm for the progress of China and demonstrates commitment. Q7 Yes-People .2338***. Q8. y. Q4. .1717***. .1982***. C hQ9 i U e n g c hQ10. .1392***. sit. Q3. .1731***. Q5. Q6. .2037***. .2105***. er. al. .1847***. n. Yes-People .1607***. Table 4-3 Yes-People. Q2. io. Q1. Nat. to goals of Chinese people.. v ni. .2103***. Q11 .1146***. Note. *p<0.05. **p<0.01. ***p<0.001. 4.2.3 Alienated Followers According to the literature, the research uses the questions of “How frequently do you report your problems to the concerned authorities to change the way things are?” and “How frequently have you criticized Xi Jinping’s decisions either publicly or privately?” to identified alienated followers, since alienated followers are more critical and disgruntle. According to the regression result, it is significant that alienated followers tend to have negative perception of leader underα=0.1% level. 25.

(32) The coefficient shows that alienated followers has greater effect on question 2” Xi JinPing can be trusted for the progress of China.” and question 10” Xi JinPing is open to new ideas/approaches in order to solve problems.”. In the other words, alienated followers would be unlikely to trust Xi for the progress of China and do not consider Xi is open to new idea in order to solve problems. Table 4-4 Alienated followers. Alienated. Q1. Q2. Q3. Q4. Q5. Q6. -.2945***. -.3136***. -.2852***. -.3057***. -.2953***. -.2781***. Q7. Q8. Q9. Q10. Q11. -.2816***. -.2643***. Followers Alienated. 立. Followers. 治-.3155*** 政 -.2530*** 大. -.1496***. Note. *p<0.05. **p<0.01. ***p<0.001.. ‧ 國. 學. 4.2.4 Sheep Followers. ‧. Sheep followers are likened to sheep who do only what they are told and no more; therefore,. y. Nat. the research use questions of “How influential have your friends and family been in your. sit. perception about Xi Jinping?”, “How frequently have you criticized Xi Jinping’s decisions either. al. er. io. publicly or privately?” and “How frequently have you taken any initiative to change the way. v. n. things are?” to identified sheep followers. According to the research result, under α=0.01 level,. Ch. i n U. sheep followers has positive effect on the perception of the leader. The coefficient shows that. engchi. sheep followers have greater effect on question 4” Xi JinPing is admirable.”(0.3727) and question 10” Xi JinPing is open to new ideas/approaches in order to solve problems.”(0.3798). Table 4-5 Sheep Followers. Sheep. Q1. Q2. Q3. Q4. Q5. Q6. .3301***. .3509***. .3366***. .3727***. .3403***. .3402 ***. Q7. Q8. Q9. Q10. Q11. .3505***. .3257***. .3371 ***. .3798 ***. .1992***. Followers Sheep Followers Note. *p<0.05. **p<0.01. ***p<0.001.. 26.

(33) 4.3 Hypothesis results Table 4-6 Hypothesis 5: Younger people would be more open mind in terms of politics than the elder. Hyp5. (1). (2). (3). Age. -.0960**. -.09668**. -.0850 *. 1.7089***. 1.6928***. Gender Educational level. -.1180. _cons. 7.071074. 6.2385. 6.2734. Note. *p<0.10. **p<0.05. ***p<0.01. In the research, we use the sum score of “How frequently have you criticized Xi Jinping’s. 政治大 dependent variable “hyp5”. When 立we run the simple regression of age, the result shows age has. decisions either publicly or privately?” and “Have you ever found that Xi Jinping is wrong?” as significant effect on open-mined under α=5% level. After added gender into the multiple. ‧ 國. 學. regression, the age still shows significant effect under α=5% level. Having age, gender, and educational level included, the result shows that independent variable ”age” and “gender” have. ‧. the significant effect under α=10% and 1% level. Therefore, we can reject the null hypothesis, to. y. Nat. proof that younger people would be more open mind in terms of politics than older people since. sit. the coefficient of age is negative(-0.085). In conclusion, younger people would criticize Xi either. er. io. publicly or privately more and be more likely to think Xi is wrong than older people.. al. n. iv n C Table 4-7 Hypothesis 6: People with higher educational level h e n g c h i U would have higher political consciousness than people with lower educational level. Hyp6. (1). Age. (2). (3). -.0855***. -.0908***. Gender. .5886***. Educational level. .1088. .3473**. .3983**. _cons. 6.6248. 7.9509. 7.6525. Note. *p<0.10. **p<0.05. ***p<0.01. Taking the sum scores of ” How interested are you in politics of China?” and “How concerned do you feel about China’s Future?” as dependent variable “hyp6”. The simple 27.

(34) regression of educational level has no significant effect on political consciousness; however, when we add the variable “age” into multiple-regression, there is a significant proof that both age and educational level have effect on political consciousness. When we have all of the variables included, the statistical result shows that independent variable ”educational level” has positive effect on political consciousness since the coefficient is positive(0.3983), which means people with higher educational level would have higher political consciousness. Thus we do reject the null hypothesis under α=5% level since p-value=0.010. Hypothesis 7: Male would have higher political consciousness than female Taking the sum scores of ” How interested are you in politics of China?” and “How. 政治大 simple regression, there is a significant proof of gender has positive effect on political 立 concerned do you feel about China’s Future?” as dependent variable “hyp7”. Based on the. consciousness because the coefficient of variable “gender” is positive(0.5259); the research. ‧ 國. 學. result is under α=1% level. Moreover, the variable “gender” is also significant in regression (2)and(3) in the table below. To sum up, we reject the null hypothesis; thus there is a statistical. ‧. evidence proof that male would have higher political consciousness than female.. Educational level _cons. 6.6231. er. -.05137*. al. .5259***. .5344***. v ni. n. Gender. (2). Ch. sit. (1). io. Age. Nat. Hyp7. y. Table 4-8 Hypothesis 7: Male would have higher political consciousness than female. U e n g c h i7.7702. (3) -.0908*** .5886*** .3983** 7.6525. Note. *p<0.10. **p<0.05. ***p<0.01. 4.3.3 Four types of followers Moreover, according to the regression result, the younger questionnaire subjects are more likely to be effective followers and alienated followers, especially effective followers since it is significant at α=0.05 level. Moreover, male are more likely to be effective followers and alienated followers; whereas female are more likely are to be yes-people and sheep followers. Finally, lower educated people are more likely to be alienated followers in terms of leadership.. 28.

(35) Table 4-9 Four types of followers Coefficient of Independent Variables Dependent variable. age. male. education. Effective followers. -0.1078**. 0.9763**. 0.139. Yes people. 0.0522. -0.6054**. 0.3269*. Alienated_followers. -0.0255. 1.0622**. -0.7996. Sheep_followers. 0.0616. -1.0957**. 0.3246*. *=significant at α=0.1 level **=significant at α=0.05 level. 4.4 Questionnaire results. 立. 政治大. In this sector, the research observes and compares the opinion among different object. ‧ 國. 學. groups. To have further understand of differences of gender, educational level, age. To analyze each questionnaire, the research shows the histogram chart of different. ‧. gender’s average scores and the line chart of four educational levels’ average score in order to. y. Nat. have a brief understand of the data. In terms of statistical evidence, we firstly use T-test to test. sit. the difference between genders. Secondly, the research uses simple regression to test the effect of. al. n. observe the effect of age.. er. io. educational levels on the dependent variable. Lastly, the research uses fixed-effect regression to. i n Table 4-10 Simple regression of ageC for each questionnaire hengchi U. v. Question. Variable name. coefficient. Standard error. P-value. F. A1. Age. -0.0277. 0.0151. 0.068. 3.36. A2. Age. 0.0018. 0.0144. 0.8998. 0.27. A3. Age. -0.0422. 0.0211. 0.0467. 4. A4. Age. -0.0549. 0.0220. 0.0140. 6.12. A5. Age. -0.0427. 0.0269. 0.1140. 2.52. A6. Age. -0.0414. 0.0225. 0.0665. 3.40. A7. Age. 0.0163. 0.0195. 0.4061. 0.69. A8. Age. -0.0236. 0.0181. 0.1923. 1.71. 29.