| Every technological revolution in human society will create great influence in political life. The communication technology employed by such mass media as newspapers and televisions has greatly changed the election process and citizens’participation in politics. The emergence of the Internet not only represents change and development of communication technology, but also penetrates into every aspect of our life in an unprecedented way. The information network represented by the Internet has led to the rise of network society. The Internet has changed people’s modes of thinking and lifestyles with its great impact. And also it has a great impact on the whole society. Undoubtedly, the Internet has a great impact on the political system, especially on public political participation in an unprecedented way.Political participation is an act that citizens affect politics through certain approach or channel. The political participation theory in the modern sense is originated from the thought of people’s right. In essence, democracy demands extensive political participation, so political participation is the core of democratic politics and a necessary condition for the modern political system of benign operation. The public political participation embodies their rights and obligations for the nation. The constitution in our country has stipulated that citizens have extensive rights for political participation. Beginning with the people’s democratic dictatorship system, our country has established a series of systems including China’s National People’s Congress, multi-party cooperation and political consultation under the leadership of Communist Party, petition system and primary-level democracy, etc. In actual political life, the major forms of public political participation are election, voting, petition, participating in social organizations or party organizations, etc.Since the reform and opening up, China’s rapid economic development, revolution in social structure and the differentiation of the interest have promoted the development of China’s political participation. With the development of the Internet and rise of the network society, the Internet has become one of the most important platforms for the public political participation with its enormous information, publicity and efficiency. People’s need for political participation hasn’t been met in reality, so they will satisfy their needs through virtual space, which is the Internet. For China, with the popularization of the Internet and the expansion of Chinese netizens, the Internet has a more and more important effect on China’s political life. People now more frequently use the Internet to obtain political information and participate in political life. In June,2008, the size of Chinese netizens has surpassed that of American netizens and has become the largest in the world. In modern China, the Internet not only constructs a virtual world, but also creates a new way for the public to participate in politics. It breaks the restriction of time and space of traditional political participation with its decentralized and separated structure. Featured by low-cost, equality, openness, efficiency, directness and interaction, etc, network political participation has, to some extent, realized the equality among political participators. The value of political participation in the cyber age has become more evident than any age. In terms of starting a public agenda, network political participation has a unique advantage of not depending on the government approval.The Internet gives the public the right to say. And in the process of political participation, public opinion formed through the Internet may not affect the governmental decision, but it is an important factor that governments should consider of when they are making decisions, which arouses the enthusiasm of public political participation. In the meantime, the Internet also provides a very convenient platform for the interaction between government and the public, which promotes the communication and talk between government and the public as well as improves the ability of public political participation.The Internet not only changes people’s political concept and the mode of political participation, but also changes the act of governmental decision, creating a new environment for China’s political development. Network political participation is an act that citizens participate in the political life, thus influences the political process through the Internet. Compared with traditional political participation, network political participation has been featured by the broadness of participates and the interaction of ways of participation. When faced with this new mode of political participation, if the government takes proactive measures to communicate with citizens on the Internet, good interactive relationship will be formed and conflict will be prevented and coordinated. Network political participation is the pressure reducing valve of realpolitik. However, if the government can not keep up with the development of online community and resorts to coercion and attack, the conflict will escalate. In this case, network political participation will become catalyst of political conflict.In2003, the "Sun Zhigang incident symbolizes the truly formation of China’s network political influence. In the early2008, the "Suide incident","Xifeng incident","Tianmen incident" and "South China Tiger event" are all magnified through network public opinion, leading to extensive social impact. The Internet has played amazing political effect in a series of events, such as "hide-and-seek" event,"Deng Yujiao’s case","Hangzhou drag racing case","Shanghai fishing enforcement","Shishou riot","torch relay event" and "Google’s withdrawal from China". The Internet is not only an important tool for citizens to take part in political activities, express interests to the government and oversight the politics. In the meantime, it is also an important way for governors to know how people are faring and pool their wisdom. At present, Chinese officials have increasingly recognized the importance of the Internet and many leading cadres have taken part in the interaction with netizens through starting a blog and posting, etc. The year of2011was called the first year of China’s government micro blogging. More and more governmental institutions and officials start micro blogs. As a platform for communication between citizens and officials, government micro blogging can not only raise the efficiency of government sectors, but also promote the transparency of government information and the integration of e-governance information. As a new way of government innovation and management, government micro blogging has become a power that people pay more attention to. In other words, the Internet has already become a new media for leading cadres to govern the country. And in practical work, the ability to use the Internet has already become an important criterion of measuring the governing ability of leading cadres.When the Internet is combined with Chinese politics, what changes will it bring to China’s developments of China? What are the backgrounds and conditions for the rising of network political participation? What influences will the network political participation bring to China’s political environment? What are the predicaments of China’s network political participation? How dose network political participation influence China’s development of politics? How to effectively respond to the challenge that network political participation bring to the development of temporary China’s politics? The research objective of this thesis is to study the rise and development of China’s network political participation, the influence of network political participation to China’s political environment, the problems existed in China’s network political participation and the prospects of it around the above questions.The basic logic on which this thesis is based is that, with the development of network technology, network political participation has become an important political phenomenon and an important variable that influences the state power, political regime, political culture and government management. In the meantime, under the influence of network political participation, the changes in state power, political culture and government management will also react on network political participation, thus, pushing forward the thinking about the future development of network political participation. Specifically, the thesis is divided in eight parts.Part one is the introduction, mainly raising the theme of the thesis—temporary China’s network political participation, It also elaborates and explains the background and significance of the subject, the comment and method of the study, and the logical framework.Part two is the basis and logical framework of the study. This part firstly clarifies and defines the concept of political participation and network political participation. Then it discusses the related theories of the study, such as the theories of the political function of the media, the agenda setting and the relationship between political participation and political stability.Part three studies the rise and development of China’s network political participation. This part firstly analyzes the background of the rise of China’s network political participation, which is the emergence of the Internet, the development of it in China, the development of China’s politics and economy and the deepening of interest conflicts in the transitional period. Then it describes the development process and the main approach of China’s network political participation. And on this basis, it discusses major characteristics of China’s network political participation combined with specific examples.Part four is the influence of network political participation on China’s political environment. This part discusses the changes in the response mechanism and interactive modes of the government under the background of network political participation which takes micro blogging as an example. The discussion begins with the changes in network political participation and China’s political consciousness, network political participation and public decision-making, network political participation and the influence of it on government’s act.Part five analyzes the concrete form of China’s network political participation under the environment of new media, which is network supervision. With the development of the Internet technology, network supervision has become an important way to constrain and restrict public power. This part discusses and analyzes the rise and influence of network supervision, problems existed in the practical network supervision and their causes, and the effective methods to boost the institutional construction of network supervision.Part six studies the realistic predicament of China’s network political participation: the strike and challenge of digital gap and the negative effect of group polarization. It firstly introduces the overview of digital gap. Then it analyzes the manifestation and causes of digital gap and its influence on China’s network political participation. Then it discusses the overview of group polarization, and its manifestation and causes of network political participation and its influence on China’s network political participation.Part seven studies the choice of route for the development of China’s network political participation. With perfecting laws and regulations of network political participation, promoting government information publicity, strengthening the self-discipline of network industry and establishing network ethics of citizens, etc, the sound development of China’s network political participation will be promoted.Part eight is the conclusion... |
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