Analysis Of Factors Influencing Government Responsiveness In Cyberspace

Government responsiveness is an important sign of modernization of governmental governance,local governments are an important part of the government system.While reshaping the interaction between local governments and the public,technological embedment has led to the paradoxical effect of differentiated responses from local governments.However,the singularity of existing research perspectives has not dispelled the cognitive fog behind the logic that generates this paradox.Based on this paradox,this study uses political system theory as a theoretical tool and analytical framework,extracts three variables that affect government response from different subject perspectives: citizen interests,political attitudes,and government perception of public opinion based on the dynamic transformation process of citizen demand “input”-“transformation”-“output”.To verify the influence of the above variables,this study used 3066 citizen message texts and3066 government response texts to H Province W City government on the official online platform of government affairs(the local government message board)as research samples and used a mixed quantitative and qualitative research method to explore the logic behind the paradox of differentiated government responses.The regression results showed that: firstly,the government has an obvious preference for responding to collective interests,and it is highly responsive to demands with distrustful attitudes,demands that have deviations from objective facts and demands that go beyond its functional authority.Secondly,political distrust and government perception of public opinion both have negative moderating effects on collective interest demands,weakening the government’s preference for responding to collective interests.Political distrust enhances the governments responsiveness to individual interest demands,but under the pressure of “collective accountability”,the government’s responsiveness significantly decreases.Exaggeration and fabrication of objective facts in collective citizen demands and demands that go beyond the government’s functional boundaries cause difficulties in government responses.Finally,the three-way interaction effect of political distrust collective interest demands,and perception of public opinion(biased/misaligned)is significant.The level of government response to “collective accountability” varies depending on the level of government opinion.When there is bias in demands,the antagonistic effect between distrust and collective interest demands is enhanced and the government’s preference for responding to collective interest demands significantly decreases;When such demands exceed the government’s authority,The antagonistic effect between mistrust and collective demands is offset by the “misalignment”,and the government responds in a compensatory manner with a higher level of response.The study finds that citizens’ objective interests are “subjectively constructed” by themselves,“symbolically packaged” by technology platforms,and “recreated” by local governments.The paradox of differential government response is the result of the game of government-public interaction and originates from the tense relationship between government and citizens.Therefore,the difference can be reduced but not eliminated.This study explored the paradox of government responses in the online space from the perspectives of government technology platforms,and government integration.Given the universality of political system theory,the results may provide some reference value and borrowing significance for other related studies.