Promoting The Effectiveness Of The Government Response To Internet Political Participation In China

Modern Democracy is supposed to reach an essential uniformity between government actions and the public demands,that is,the response requirement of democracy.Therefore,government response is the heart of the well-ordered modern democracies.Without government response,a mechanism translating social demands into public policies,modern democracies would fail to be conformity with the principle of popular sovereign,and thus become a game of political election.Theorists of the new public service emphasize the accountability aspects of government response,and highlight such political values as democracy,fairness,and justice.They underline not only the public interest but also civil rights,and maintain that the government must guarantee the effective response to public demands by communicating with the public.Previous researches on government response mainly focused on the values or goals of the government response by view it as an indispensable part of modern democracy;so that they analyzed the problems of government response and the possible solutions.But the previous researches paid less attention to the effectiveness of government response.This dissertation would promote the effectiveness of government response to the internet political participation.In the information age,this research would be helpful to promoting cyber-democracy,and providing some thoughts about the governance model of social cooperation.This researches conducted by the background of the rapid development of internet political participation.The first step to promote the effectiveness of government response is to figure out why internet political participation emerges,that is,to analyze the causes of internet political participation in China.Then,the research explores the challenge and opportunities for government response in internet political participation,and based on that,the research will analyze the problems of government response to internet political participation in the information age.Governments at various levels in China have been searching for improving the effectiveness of government response,and have obtained some achievement since the founding of the People's Republic of China.In the information age,the participants in the internet political participation have higher expectation of government response than that in the traditional model.In order to meet the higher expectation and realize the value of government response,government at different levels has established a system of digital government based on web portal and new media.The provincial governments,the governments of highest level among local governments,are in the leading position by their advantages in human resources,financial resources,material resources,and technology.But the studies on the response of the provincial governments to the internet political participation indicates that there are some problems in the government response,such as passiveness,delaying,and little interaction.These problems not only show the low effectiveness of government response,but also would bring some social problems,and even be threats to the social stability.This research,based on the analysis of the internet political participation and the problems of the government response to such participation,will explore the causes of these problems and the factors negatively affecting government response in the dimensions of the subjects,the objects,and the institutional environment.Given the complexity of the negative factors,it would be scarcely possible to resolve the problem of low effectiveness by adopting only one approach or method.So,to improve the effectiveness of government response to internet political participation in China,needs a multi-dimension method combined the dimensions of ideas,institutions,environment,and capacity.First,it can start with transforming bureaucrats' idea and conception of power to form responsive administration culture,and to raise their awareness of government response.Second,it needs to regulate the actions in internet political participation,and improve the environment for internet political participation;as a result,it can create healthy internet community for the well-ordered,effective communication between government and the participants.Third,it needs to institutionalize government response to the internet political participation to lead the government response in a healthy and effective direction.Fourth,it needs to establish a cultivating system for the response capacity,and thus can provide solid ground for the development of such capacity.This scientific multi-dimension method can reconstruct the process of government response,and eventually improve the effectiveness of government response to internet political participation in China.