A Tale of Two Trusts: Confucianism, Social Trust and Democratic Support in East Asian Countries.

A large number of social capital articles have shown a positive relationship between social trust and democracy. However, applying social capital theory into East Asian countries which are entrenched in Confucian values is problematic in that previous discussions are mostly established on Western democracy settings. I argue that in society of Confucian culture, it is imperative to differentiate particular interpersonal trust (trust on in-groups, including family members and friends) from general interpersonal trust (trust on out-groups, mostly strangers). This is not only because they are substantively different types of social trust as defined by Confucianism, but also have diverse implications for democratic consolidation. Using Asian barometer's first wave of survey in eight East Asian regimes, I found that Confucianism generates particular interpersonal trust, but is negatively related to general interpersonal trust. Moreover, in contrast to conventional wisdom that interpersonal trust facilitates democracy, particular trust impedes citizens' democratic support; I also addressed the "Asian Value" debate and found a robust negative effect of Confucianism on civic culture, namely, Confucianism deters popular support for democracy in East Asian democracies by impeding their rejection of authoritarian values, if it is not necessarily an obstacle for citizens to embrace democratic values. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]