Assessing Performance from Space

Citizens’ assessment of government performance has long been regarded as a key determinant of their support for authoritarian regimes (“performance legitimacy”). But such regimes can cheat performance indicators by “juking the stats” (making them “informational autocrats”). It is unclear how ordinary citizens assess government policy performance and then render their support to the regime in such contexts. Little empirical research has explored this full mechanism. We conduct a mediation analysis to test the performance-based explanation of political support in China. Using PM2.5 pollution data from satellite observations and a nationwide survey, we explore how ordinary Chinese evaluate the severity of pollution and render their support to local and central authorities.