An Analysis On The Social Mechanism Of The Mobilization Of Cyber-populism

The rise of populism is prevalent around the globe,demonstrating its power on societies.In the society of China,there is grass-root populism growing and showing itself as anti-authoritarian and anti-elite discourses.It is also following current social issues and disrupting the established social procedures.It has become a serious challenge to social administration.By expressing and spread its discourses,the cyber-populism in China mobilizes the mass to form negative public opinions and brings impact to the society.It is of both theoretical and practical values to understand its power of social mobilization and the causes behind,which forms the purpose of this research.But there are many concepts about populism in the mainstream research and no common agreement ever achieved.Researchers have been delineating populism for the convenience of their own interest.It is usually regarded as political thought,socia l movement,political tactics,social attitude,ideology or a combination of them.Such volatility brings obstacles to understand essence of populism and analyze cyberpopulism in China.No real progress can be made.It is thus necessary to analyze the mobilization of cyber-populism from a new perspective,and also necessary for understanding populism in a more general sense.This research utilizes a conceptional definition of populism,considering it as a moral compass in observing reality and forming judgments.Such a moral compass makes an individual feel emotionally offended on the morality level when viewing certain events or details,and then mobilizes this very person.Such individualmobilizations combine into a mass-mobilization.From this new perspective,emphasis has been put on the spontaneous and moral aspects of the mobilization of cyberpopulism.And by the method of case study,the populist mobilization during six famous social events has been explained through their social mechanism.After analyzing and comparing,it is explained that how the self-mobilization following social issues can be achieved by cyber-populism without leader,organization,and even a common concern among various individuals,and how the public opinion against the authority and the elite is formed during this process.At last,the possible social risk of cyber-populism is pointed out and suggestion of counter-measures is given.