The Citizen Network Participation In Public Policy Process

The mid-1990s witnessed the worldwide booming of information technology and a new overwhelming revolution of science and technology has begotten the Information Age. Internet has changed people’s political life. A surprising number of netizens begin to participate and influence China’s politics and public policy as a major force. Internet has currently become an important way for Chinese citizens to express public opinion and participate in political life, and thus has changed traditional public policy process in China. The unexpected emergence of Internet involvement (political participation on Internet) has aroused great concern of scholars and researchers in Politics, Public Management and Public Policy. Unlike existing studies, the present dissertation will analyze the relationship between two variables, namely, Internet involvement and public policy process, and attempt to answer the following questions:how do our citizens take part in public policy process on Internet? How does citizen’s political participation on Internet influence public policy process? What is the internal logic of citizens’participation in public policy process on Internet? The present study constructs an analytical framework centered on the policy network formed by citizens’Internet involvement in public policy process as well as models of how citizens participate in public policy process on Internet, and will analyze the policy network from both macro-environment and micro-individual levels.From the macro perspective, the background of citizens’Internet involvement and their means of participation generate the environment suitable for the existence of the policy network. Citizens’ Internet involvement has started and developed in certain political, economic, technological and social background. Firstly, failures of their political participation in reality turn citizens to Internet; meanwhile the update of the ruling party’s governing philosophy makes Internet involvement legitimate. Secondly, the development of cyber-economy and the changes of domestic and international economic situations have improved citizens’ability and invoked their enthusiasm in Internet involvement. In addition, the rapid development of information technology and Internet technology has made Internet involvement possible. Also the preliminary development of civil society in China has accelerated the growth of Internet involvement. And network applications like forums, government websites, blog and micro-blog provide the main platforms for citizens to participate in political life. Based on empirical investigation, this dissertation claims that these network applications have contributed to forming public opinion on Internet, promoting democracy on Internet and encouraging political communications.From the micro perspective, actors of Internet involvement such as netizens, governments, media, social organizations interact and form the policy network in which citizens can participate public policy process on Internet. Individual or groups of citizens take advantage of various application platforms on Internet and express their preferences and advices to the government. Internet involvement has exerted influence on all stages of public policy process, including agenda setting, program selection and policy implementation. The present paper studies such typical cases as online comments-collecting of "baiting law enforcement" in Shanghai, New Demolition Ordinance and traffic management in Beijing, and crackdown on abduction of women and children through micro-blog. It will analyze specifically citizens’ Internet involvement in public policy process from such angles as actors of policy network, operating mechanism and characteristics of Internet, and reveal the effects Internet involvement has exerted on different stages of public policy process. However, on the other side of Internet involvement, the government, as policy maker and executor, has to react to the overwhelming public opinion on Internet. Internet involvement has brought both challenges and opportunities for government administration. Initially the government took monitoring as the major reaction. However, with a deeper understanding of Internet involvement, an increasing number of local governments and political leaders did not regard it as great scourges any more. On the other hand, they began to confront public opinion with an open and inclusive mind and reacted to Internet involvement with positive response and active guidance instead of strict monitoring. The change of the government’s reaction demonstrates a policy learning process from blocking to dredging.Based on the detailed examination of the background, means, stages of citizens’ Internet involvement in public policy process as well as the government’s reaction to it, the present study draws the conclusion that public opinion on Internet and government’s attitude are the core variables that affect citizens’Internet involvement; and political elites, intellectual elites, mass media, social organizations, celebrities are peripheral variables; and attitude of government and political elites is the vital determining factor of Internet involvement. This paper establishes six models of Internet involvement in public policy process including efficient model, in-efficient model, driving model, isolated model, blocked model, public enemy model according to public opinion on Internet and government’s attitude. Besides, it classifies two participation mechanisms, top-down and bottom-up, on the foundation of different initiators of Internet involvement. Grounded on examinations of empirical cases, it also abstracts three participation models of citizens’Internet involvement in policy agenda setting, policy programming and policy implementation, repairing and expanding the process model constructed in the Introduction part.Although the current Internet involvement has exerted an increasingly important influence on public policy process, it is still faced with a number of difficulties and bottlenecks in its in-depth development such as structural imbalance of representatives, disordered Internet involvement because of the freeness and openness of Internet, the danger of disintegration of our dominant political ideology by western ideology and diversified values rife on Internet, the tendency of "spiral of silence" or "anti-spiral of silence" effects of Internet involvement since Internet is a new medium, the possibility of irrational group psychology like group polarization. For a healthy development of Internet involvement, the present paper puts forward an optimized proposal from institutional, legal and moral perspectives. A security system should be constructed to guarantee citizens’Internet involvement and to shorten the distance between reality and virtual reality. Government websites and micro-blogs should be improved and reaction to Internet involvement should be active. Legislative process should be promoted to protect citizens’ right to free speech on Internet. Ethics of Internet involvement should be established. Self-discipline in Internet involvement should be advocated; citizens should be encouraged to participate in Internet involvement; and administrative ethics should be established in the network era.Nearly a decade of Internet involvement practices demonstrate that at the present stage our government and citizens can obviously realize communication, consultation and cooperation on Internet and make joint efforts to make decision-making and public governance more democratic. Internet involvement in public policy process has yielded good results, but the current Internet involvement is always initiated by government and its positive function has not yet fully displayed. The present paper claims that the future development trend of citizens’Internet involvement in public policy process is to realize direct democracy on Internet through relatively matured network communities, and to construct an online voting system that cover all the stages of public policy process to guarantee citizens’right to participate. We have reason to believe that our public policy process will be more democratic through efficient Internet involvement and we will get nearer to the goal of democratic and scientific decision-making.