Social life and political trust in China: Searching for machers and schmoozers
| Date | 01 November 2019 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0192512118809103 |
| Published date | 01 November 2019 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
https://doi.org/10.1177/0192512118809103
International Political Science Review
2019, Vol. 40(5) 694 –709
© The Author(s) 2018
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DOI: 10.1177/0192512118809103
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Social life and political trust in
China: Searching for machers
and schmoozers
Yinxuan Huang
University of Manchester, UK
Abstract
Previous literature has provided little evidence regarding the ways in which China’s burgeoning social
life and rapid urbanization shape Chinese people’s level of trust in their government leaders. This article
builds on Robert Putnam’s conceptualization of maching and schmoozing as formal and informal forms of
social involvement, respectively. Using the 2012 Chinese General Social Survey, we identify four types of
participants in social involvement, namely the inactives, machers, schmoozers and all-rounders, to untangle
various aspects of social life in China. Our empirical analysis shows that the sociodemographic positions of
the four types of social involvement are largely distinct. Our findings also contribute to the study of political
trust by offering insight into the complicated associations between social involvement, hukou status and
political trust in contemporary Chinese society.
Keywords
Social capital, political trust, hukou, migration, China
Introduction
Political trust reflects people’s belief and confidence in government and presents significant impact
on political governance and regime stability. While the issue of political trust is well recognized by
academics in Western societies (Easton, 1965; Newton, 2001), it has also received a great deal of
attention in China in recent years (Li, 2016; Wu and Wilkes, 2017). The growing body of work in
this terrain reflects increasing concerns about the political implications of social change in China.
China’s development has largely shaped the structure of contemporary Chinese society, which is
mirrored in the massive internal migrations and the long-existing hukou (i.e. household registra-
tion) system. Moreover, although civic engagement is still a relatively new concept in China, some
scholars have noticed the emergence of new forms of civic and social involvement from China’s
Corresponding author:
Yinxuan Huang, Manchester Urban Institute, The University of Manchester, 1.34 HBS Building, Bridgeford Street,
Manchester, M13 9PL, UK.
Email: yinxuan.huang@manchester.ac.uk
809103IPS0010.1177/0192512118809103International Political Science ReviewHuang
research-article2018
Article
Huang 695
nondemocratic yet rapidly modernizing society (Chen and Lu, 2007; Li, 2013). These changes
have raised many unanswered questions among scholars and policy makers in China: what are the
patterns of social life in the Chinese context? How can the dynamics of social involvement explain
political trust in today’s China, which has become more diverse owing to internal migration and the
hukou system? Although they are crucial for our understanding of political attitudes in contempo-
rary Chinese society, little research has investigated these questions systematically.
This study is intended to help fill this gap by exploring the key features of social life in China
and the effects of social involvement on political trust. Accordingly, this study aims to contribute
to the existing literature in three ways. First, the impact of social life has been insufficiently con-
sidered in the previous literature on China’s socio-political development. Hence, this study first
contributes to the classification of social life in China in line with Robert Putnam’s conceptualiza-
tion of ‘machers’ and ‘schmoozers’, which focus on both the formal and the informal facets of
social involvement (Putnam, 2000: 93). Second, it investigates the sociodemographic determinants
of maching and schmoozing. Specifically, the results shed new lights on the impact of China’s
social change on the patterns of social life among Chinese people. Third, it examines the effects of
social involvement and individuals’ hukou status on the level of trust in local and national govern-
ment officials, both generally and in terms of interaction. This allows us to depict the relationship
between social involvement and political trust more comprehensively.
Introducing machers and schmoozers
In his landmark study, Bowling Alone, Putnam builds a neo-Tocquevillian framework for under-
standing the nature and implications of social capital in a democratic society (Putnam, 2000, 2007).
One of the core ideas contributing to Putnam’s civic approach to social capital is that social con-
nections are essential ingredients of social order and political engagement. Putnam distinguishes
between ‘maching’ and ‘schmoozing’, two distinctive aspects of social life represented by Yiddish
terms (Putnam, 2000). Machers are people who ‘make things happen in the community’ by volun-
teering, getting involved in politics, working on community projects, and the like (Putnam, 2000:
93). Machers refer to people who are actively involved in formal social participation. They tend to
be active members of formal associations and make substantial contributions to the wider com-
munity. By contrast, schmoozers refer to people who are frequently engaged in informal social
participation, the social life of schmoozers is more casual and less purposeful than that of machers
(Putnam, 2000: 94). Schmoozers tend to invest time primarily in a wide range of informal com-
munions and gatherings such as sport or leisure activities, hanging out with friends and visiting
relatives. Newton characterizes them as ‘the very substance of society – its basic woven fabric’
(Newton, 1999:10). Therefore, while maching mirrors formal social involvement, schmoozing
sheds light on the informal aspect of social life.
Previous findings in Western democracies have pointed towards the strong sociopolitical impact
of social involvement. Social connections, especially those embedded in formal civic engagement,
may foster a link between citizens and political institutions at various levels. For example, indi-
viduals who actively volunteer in civic associations display much higher levels of political trust
and efficacy than non-participants (Li and Marsh, 2008). It is plausible that such contacts can lead
to greater satisfaction with governments as they allow public voices to be heard by government
leaders and lead to more efficient conflict resolution. Consequently, civic engagement provides
opportunities for citizens to evaluate politicians and political institutions (Bäck and Kestilä-
Kekkonen, 2008). Furthermore, social capital and norms derived from social involvement have
been found to present salient sociopolitical implications. Active social capitalists tend to have a
more optimistic worldview, which enhances their perceived ability to influence politics (Hooghe
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