Factors influencing villagers’ willingness to participate in grassroots governance: evidence from the Chinese social survey

The study examines declining participation in village elections in China amid urbanization, information barriers, and emergent oligarchic politics, which together undermine villagers’ engagement and rural governance efficacy. It seeks to identify determinants of villagers’ willingness to participate in grassroots governance and the boundary conditions under which these determinants operate. Building on the central role of political efficacy (PE) as a motivator of political action, the authors investigate how satisfaction with government performance (SGP) and perceived social justice (SJ) condition the PE–participation link. The study proposes that PE positively influences willingness to participate (H1), that SGP positively moderates this relationship (H2), and that SJ serves as a higher-order moderator strengthening the PE×SGP effect on willingness to participate (H3).

The literature highlights the distinct trajectory of China’s grassroots democracy, where villagers’ participation encompasses political, economic, social, and cultural spheres. Prior research links participation to factors such as social capital, internet use, electoral procedures, religion, and election corruption. Political efficacy (PE) is theorized as a key antecedent of political participation, though its effect can vary across contexts. Studies suggest higher PE fosters trust in institutional fairness and motivation to engage, correlating with greater participation. Satisfaction with government performance (SGP), adapted from customer satisfaction theory, is associated with policy implementation effectiveness, trust, and participation; higher SGP can bolster PE and engagement, while poor performance dampens both. Social justice (SJ), conceptualized here as perceived fairness in opportunities, processes, and distributions, relates to SGP and participation and may amplify PE’s constructive role; perceived injustice reduces turnout and erodes trust and efficacy. These strands motivate three hypotheses: H1 (PE → willingness positive), H2 (SGP positively moderates PE → willingness), and H3 (SJ positively moderates the PE×SGP effect on willingness).

Data source: 2019 Chinese Social Survey (CSS2019) by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, employing multi-stage stratified sampling across 31 provinces/autonomous regions/municipalities (excluding Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan), 151 districts/counties, and 604 villages/neighborhood committees. The study focuses on respondents with rural (agricultural) household registration, yielding a final valid sample of 7031. Measures: - Political efficacy (PE, independent variable): Three items (e.g., beliefs about influence of political participation, obedience to government, and need for public to think about national affairs), 4-point scale from 1=Strongly agree to 4=Strongly disagree (reverse-coded where appropriate); higher scores indicate greater PE. Cronbach’s α=0.588; M=2.398, SD=0.826. - Willingness to participate in grassroots governance (dependent variable): Two items on willingness to participate in village committee elections and major decision-making discussions; responses reverse-coded to 0=unwilling, 1=willing; higher scores indicate greater willingness. Cronbach’s α=0.825; M=0.674, SD=0.607. - Moderators: • Satisfaction with government performance (SGP): 13 areas (e.g., job security, environmental protection, public order, anti-corruption, economic development), scored 1=very poor to 4=very good; higher indicates higher SGP. Cronbach’s α=0.914; M=3.159, SD=0.671. • Social justice (SJ): Perceived fairness across 11 domains (e.g., college entrance exam, compulsory education, healthcare, elderly care), scored 1=very unfair to 4=very fair; higher indicates stronger SJ perception. Cronbach’s α=0.795; M=3.043, SD=0.650. - Controls: Age (M=50.724, SD=14.197; range 22–73), gender (0=female, 1=male; 42.3% male), education (M=3.10, SD=1.775), political outlook (0=non-CPC, 1=CPC; 6.8% CPC), socio-economic status (M=2.37, SD=1.045). Analysis: SPSS 26.0 used for reliability/validity tests and correlations. Common method bias checked via Harman’s single-factor test (first factor=30.987% variance <40%). Moderation tested using PROCESS v4.0: Model 1 for two-way moderation (SGP), and Model 3 for three-way (higher-order) moderation with SJ. Bootstrapping set to 5000 samples with 95% bias-corrected CIs.

- Common method bias: Harman single-factor variance for first factor=30.987% (<40%), indicating no serious common method bias. - H1 (main effect of PE): PE positively predicts willingness to participate in grassroots governance (β=0.078, SE=0.012, t=6.427, p<0.001), controlling for demographics and SES. - H2 (moderation by SGP): Interaction PE×SGP significant and positive (β=0.070, SE=0.013, t=5.301, p<0.001). Model fit (moderation model): R=0.192, R^2=0.037, F=20.380. - H3 (higher-order moderation by SJ): Three-way interaction PE×SGP×SJ significant (β=0.066, SE=0.015, t=4.423, p<0.001). Additional effects in Model 3 include: PE main effect (β=0.045, SE=0.013, t=3.464, p<0.001), SGP main effect (β=0.024, SE=0.016, t=1.488, n.s.), PE×SGP (β=0.040, SE=0.016, t=2.422, p<0.05), SJ main effect (β=0.061, SE=0.016, t=3.740, p<0.001), SGP×SJ (β=0.049, SE=0.017, t=2.986, p<0.01), PE×SJ (β=-0.006, SE=0.018, t=-0.356, n.s.). Model fit: R=0.226, R^2=0.051, F=19.148. - Conditional effects: • High SJ group (M+SD): PE×SGP positively predicts willingness (β=0.083, F=20.796, p<0.001). Within high SJ, high SGP condition shows a significant positive effect of PE on willingness (β=0.098, SE=0.013, t=7.350, p<0.001), whereas low SGP condition shows no significant PE effect (β=-0.017, SE=0.028, t=-0.593, p=0.553). • Low SJ group (M−SD): PE×SGP not significant (β=-0.004, F=0.041, p=0.840). Within low SJ, low SGP condition shows a significant positive PE effect (β=0.052, SE=0.020, t=2.593, p<0.01), whereas high SGP condition shows no significant PE effect (β=0.047, SE=0.024, t=1.930, p=0.54). Overall, PE increases willingness to participate; SGP strengthens this relationship, and this strengthening is itself amplified under higher SJ perceptions.

The findings address the core question of what drives villagers’ willingness to engage in grassroots governance and under what conditions. Political efficacy directly enhances willingness to participate, supporting theories that perceptions of influence translate into action. Satisfaction with government performance operates as a contextual resource that augments the translation of efficacy into participation, suggesting that effective, transparent, and responsive governance encourages efficacious citizens to act. Importantly, perceived social justice conditions this moderating pathway: in contexts of high perceived fairness, SGP more strongly amplifies the efficacy–participation link. This implies that fair procedures and equitable distributions nurture trust and belonging, which, together with satisfaction, enable politically efficacious villagers to engage more readily. These results refine models of political participation by demonstrating that both institutional performance and fairness perceptions are crucial boundary conditions for the efficacy–participation relationship in rural China, informing strategies to strengthen democratic practices at the village level.

This study demonstrates that political efficacy significantly boosts villagers’ willingness to participate in grassroots governance, that satisfaction with government performance positively moderates this relationship, and that perceived social justice further strengthens the moderating effect of SGP. The contributions include: (1) expanding the model linking PE to participation by introducing contextual moderators, helping reconcile mixed findings in prior research; (2) evidencing SGP’s constructive moderating role, deepening understanding of how performance and political satisfaction shape behavior; and (3) validating SJ as a higher-order moderator, proposing a more nuanced framework wherein fairness perceptions jointly condition the influence of performance and efficacy on participation. Future research should incorporate primary data to enrich measurement (e.g., detailed participation pathways and motivations), and employ longitudinal designs to establish causal dynamics among PE, SGP, SJ, and participation across time and policy contexts.

- Reliance on secondary, cross-sectional CSS2019 data limits the scope of variables and precludes causal inference; primary data collection and mixed-methods approaches could broaden constructs (e.g., participation pathways) and improve validity. - Cross-sectional design limits temporal analysis of dynamics among PE, SGP, SJ, and participation; future longitudinal or panel designs are recommended to assess causality and change over time. - The focus on rural (agricultural) household registrants excludes urban disadvantaged groups, limiting generalizability beyond rural contexts.