The Transfer And Restructuring Of Power In The Network Society

The fast development of network technology is a remarkable characteristic of modern society, which leads to the rising of a network society. Any influential and historic technological invention will be a great impetus to the social development. In that sense, society develops in the following order: an influential new technology—a new way of life and production—a new economy—a new society—a new civilization. During the whole process, technological progress tends to cause huge changes in the whole society both physically and spiritually. And under the influence of network technology, great changes have happened to modern society, not only in terms of people's way of life and production, but also in people's social relationship. Certainly, the relationships among social powers have also experienced changes due to network technology. And the transfer of power in the network society is mainly reflected in the change of discourse power and the rising of technological power as well as the debilitation of some administration power, which has an effect on the operation of different powers such as authorities. The government is gradually giving its way to the public in terms of discourse power, especially to intellectual elites and Medias. The transfer of social power speeds up the approaching of civil society (mainly referring to China), and provides technological support and public opinion preparation for constitutional democracy. And the restructuring of social power is about to come.