Citizen Participation Through Internet In Public Governance

Citizen participation is always a hot pot of Politics and Public Administration. Besides the existing participation approaches, people try to find some more effective ways. Now, the Internet offers citizen a safer、more convenient and economic ways, people are taking part in governance through Internet more frequently. The new approach changes the participation ways as well as people’s ideology.In recent years, citizen participation through Internet emerges in large numbers, and people tend to express their views on public affairs、public hot spots and governance, as well as interest demands, over the Internet. Obviously, citizen participation via the network is becoming a supplement, or even an alternative for participation in reality to some extent. Then, what’s citizen participation via the network? Who are participants? What are the participation ways? What are the features of citizen participation over the Internet? What is the process? What are the positive values for governance? What dilemmas citizen participation over the Internet are facing with? What the government should do to deal with these dilemmas? All these issues will be discussed in this essay. Of course, some issues are not as important as the others. The article mainly focus on the features、process、values、 dilemmas and measures to promote the citizen participation through the network.The article says, citizen participation via the network means activities, happening in cyberspace but referring to the real political and social system, that citizen participate in public affairs、express their interest demands and affect public policy or political system directly or not with the use of network. Netizens as a single and network community are the main participants, the approaches are network forum、microblog、blog、government websites、QQ community and so on. The features of citizen participation through the Internet are as follows:the equality and anonymity of the participants, the complexity of the participation purpose, participation without mobilization and hard to be controlled, the diversity and directness of participation ways, the convenience and efficiency of the participation.Then, the essay analyze the case that anti-trafficking through microblog with the purpose of understanding the new ways、process and features of governance under the circumstance citizen participation via the network. We think that anti-trafficking through microblog involving celebrities、netizens、media、government、charity organizations and CPPCC members is cooperative governance with multi-participants, and is also a citizen participation practice via the network with positive values and reference. Rational and orderly citizen participation via the network will influence the government by following ways:transferring the governance philosophy, optimizing government organizational structure, improving the decision-making and reducing governance costs, enriching the governance approaches and prompting the government to be clean and honest.However, citizen participation through the Internet is imperfect and unreasonable in recent times, there are dilemmas as follows:illegality、participants’structural disequilibrium related to digital gap、irrational participation、group polarization and the spiral of silence. As a response to the citizen participation through network, the article says, government should take the following measures:increasing the information infrastructure for developing areas, improving laws and regulations, building citizen participation morality through the network.