Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-qxdb6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-26T01:52:01.698Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Online Political Participation in China: Local Government and Differentiated Response

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 March 2019

Yongshun Cai  and
Titi Zhou
Yongshun Cai*
Affiliation:
Division of Social Science, The Hong Kong University of Science & Technology
Titi Zhou
Affiliation:
Department of Asian and Policy Studies, The Education University of Hong Kong. Email: zhoutiti.bj@gmail.com.
*
Email: socai@ust.hk (corresponding author).
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Chinese citizens commonly take to the internet to voice complaints concerning their daily lives. The political hierarchy in China dictates that local governments are primarily responsible for addressing such grievances. This study investigates how local governments deal with online complaints and finds that they respond in a variety of ways and that their choice of a particular form of response is shaped by the pressure generated by the complaint and the cost of resolving it. This study contributes to the understanding of government responsiveness in China by directly assessing the quality of governmental responses and by measuring the pressure and costs faced by the government when dealing with online complaints. It also explains how the Chinese government, without having to rely on censorship, shields regime legitimacy from media exposure.

摘要

互联网已成为中国民众表达利益诉求的常用途径。中国的政治体制决定了网络诉求主要由地方政府负责解决。本文旨在分析地方政府如何回应民众的网络诉求。我们的研究发现, 中国地方政府有多种方式回应民众的网络诉求，其对于某一诉求的回应取决于该诉求所产生的压力和解决该诉求所需的成本。与现有研究不同的是，本文度量了政府回应诉求的质量并具体分析了政府面临的回应压力和成本，同时也揭示了中国政府在不依赖舆论审查的情况下如何维护政权的合法性。

Keywords

online complaintsgovernmentdifferentiated responseChina网络诉求政府差异性回应中国
Type
Research Article
Information
The China Quarterly , Volume 238 , June 2019 , pp. 331 - 352
Copyright
Copyright © SOAS University of London 2019 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bialer, Seweryn. 1980. Stalin's Successors: Leadership, Stability and Change in the Soviet Union. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Bimber, Bruce. 1999. “The internet and citizen communication with government: does the medium matter?” Political Communication 16(4), 409–428.Google Scholar
Blair, Anthony. 1996. “The possibility and actuality of visual arguments.” Argumentation and Advocacy 33(1), 23–39.Google Scholar
Cai, Yongshun. 2008. “Power structure and regime resilience: contentious politics in China.” British Journal of Political Science 38(2), 411–432.Google Scholar
Cai, Yongshun. 2014. State and Agents in China: Disciplining Government Officials. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Chen, Jidong, Pan, Jennifer and Xu, Yiqing. 2016. “Sources of authoritarian responsiveness: a field experiment in China.” American Journal of Political Science 60(2), 383–400.Google Scholar
Chen, Jidong, and Xu, Yiqing. 2017. “Why do authoritarian regimes allow citizens to voice opinion publicly?” Journal of Politics 79(3), 792–803.Google Scholar
Chen, Xi. 2012. Social Protest and Contentious Authoritarianism in China. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
CINIC ( China Internet Network Information Center). 2015. “2014 nian Zhongguo wangmin sousuo xingwei yanjiu baogao” (2014 research report on the search behaviour of Chinese internet users), 22 June, http://bit.ly/2qB7VZ8. Accessed 8 May 2015.Google Scholar
Damm, Jens. 2007. “The internet and the fragmentation of Chinese Society.” Critical Asian Studies 39(2), 273–294.Google Scholar
Delicath, John, and DeLuca, Kevin Michael. 2003. “Image events, the public sphere, and argumentative practice: the case of radical environmental groups.” Argumentation 17(3), 315–333.Google Scholar
Distelhorst, Greg, and Hou, Yue. 2014. “Ingroup bias in official behavior: a national field experiment in China.” Quarterly Journal of Political Science 9(2), 203–230.Google Scholar
Distelhorst, Greg, and Hou, Yue. 2017. “Constituency service under nondemocratic rule: evidence from China.” Journal of Politics 79(3), 1024–40.Google Scholar
Esarey, Ashley, and Xiao, Qiang. 2008. “Political expression in the Chinese blogosphere: below the radar.” Asian Survey 48(5), 752–772.Google Scholar
Gui, Yong, Xiumei, Li, Wen, Zheng and Ronggui, Huang. 2015. “Wangluo jiduan qingxu renqun de leixing jiqi zhengzhi ye shehui hanyi” (Typological analysis of online extreme emotion-based groups and their sociopolitical implications). Shehui 5, 1–23.Google Scholar
Han, Rongbin. 2015a. “Manufacturing consent in cyberspace: China's ‘fifty-cent army’.” Journal of Current Chinese Affairs 44(2), 105–134.Google Scholar
Han, Rongbin. 2015b. “Defending the authoritarian regime online: China's ‘voluntary fifty-cent army’.” The China Quarterly 224, 1006–25.Google Scholar
Heckman, James. 1979. “Sample selection bias as a specification error.” Econometrica 47(1), 153–161.Google Scholar
Huang, Haifeng, Boranbay, Serra and Huang, Ling. 2019. “Media, protest diffusion, and authoritarian resilience.” Political Science Research and Methods 7(1), 23–42.Google Scholar
King, Gary, Pan, Jennifer and Roberts, Margaret E.. 2013. “How censorship in China allows government criticism but silences collective expression.” American Political Science Review 107(2), 326–343.Google Scholar
King, Gary, Pan, Jennifer and Roberts, Margaret E.. 2017. “How the Chinese government fabricates social media posts for strategic distraction, not engaged argument.” American Political Science Review 111(3), 484–501Google Scholar
Li, Zewei. 2017. “Tufa shijian quanwei fabu xuzai 5 xiaoshi nei” (Authoritative response to sudden incidents needs to be made within 5 hours). Beijing qingnian bao, 22 April.Google Scholar
Lorentzen, Peter. 2014. “China's strategic censorship.” American Journal of Political Science 58(2), 402–414.Google Scholar
Lu, Sha. 2016. “Guoban: zhengfu yu zhongda tufa shijian zuichi 24 xiaoshi nei huiying” (The General Office of the State Council: the government must respond to important and sudden incidents within 24 hours), 3 March, http://bit.ly/2rBKuxm. Accessed 13 August 2016.Google Scholar
Luo, Yufan. 2015. “‘Wangluo qiaozha he youchang shantie’ zhuanxiang zhili chengguo xianzhu” (Great achievements in battling “online fraud and paid deletion of messages”), 7 September, http://news.xinhuanet.com/legal/2015-09/07/c_1116482751.htm. Accessed 3 January 2016.Google Scholar
Lynch, Marc. 2011. “After Egypt: the promise and limitation of the online challenge to the authoritarian Arab state.” Perspectives on Politics 9(2), 301–310.Google Scholar
MacKinnon, Rebecca. 2011. “China's ‘networked authoritarianism’.” Journal of Democracy 22(2), 32–46.Google Scholar
Morozov, Evgeny. 2011. The Net Delusion: The Dark Side of Internet Freedom. New York: Public Affairs.Google Scholar
Müller, Marion, and Hübner, Celina. 2014. “How Facebook facilitated the Jasmine Revolution: conceptualizing the functions of online social network communication.” Journal of Social Media Studies 1(1), 17–33.Google Scholar
Pan, Qingyao. 2015. “Guojia xinfangju: wangshang xinfang zheng zubu chengwei xinfang zhu qudao” (Online petitions are becoming the main channel for petitions), 27 June, http://politics.people.com.cn/n/2015/0627/c1001-27217827.html. Accessed 16 July 2016.Google Scholar
Polat, Rabia Karakaya. 2005. “The internet and political participation exploring the explanatory links.” European Journal of Communication 20(4), 435–459.Google Scholar
Roberts, Andrew, and Kim, Byung-Yeon. 2011. “Policy responsiveness in post-communist Europe: public preferences and economic reforms.” British Journal of Political Science 41(4), 819–839.Google Scholar
Su, Zheng, and Meng, Tianguang. 2016. “Selective responsiveness: online public demands and government responsiveness in authoritarian China.” Social Science Research 59, 52–67.Google Scholar
Sullivan, Jonathan. 2014. “China's Weibo: is faster different?” New Media & Society 16(1), 24–37.Google Scholar
Svolik, Milan. 2012. The Politics of Authoritarian Rule. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Tong, Yanqi, and Lei, Shaohua. 2013. “War of position and microblogging in China.” Journal of Contemporary China 22(80), 292–311.Google Scholar
Truex, Rory. 2017. “Consultative authoritarianism and its limits.” Comparative Political Studies 50(3), 329–361.Google Scholar
Tsai, Lily L. 2015. “Constructive noncompliance.” Comparative Politics 47(3), 253–279.Google Scholar
Xiaolan.me. 2014. “Yuqing xinxi baogao” (Report on public opinion), https://xiaolan.me/50-cent-party-jxgzzg.html. Accessed 3 August 2015.Google Scholar
Yang, Guobin. 2009. The Power of the Internet in China: Citizen Activism Online. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Yu, Guoming. 2013. Zhongguo shehui yuqing niandu baogao 2013 (Annual Report on Public Opinion in China, 2013). Beijing: The People's Daily Press.Google Scholar
Yu, Guoming. 2014. Zhongguo Shehui yuqing niandu baogao 2014 (Annual Report on Public Opinion in China, 2014). Beijing: The People's Daily Press.Google Scholar
Yu, Guoming, and Li, Biao. 2015. Zhongguo shehui yuqing niandu baogao 2015 (Annual Report on Public Opinion in China, 2015). Beijing: The People's Daily Press.Google Scholar
Zheng, Yongnian. 2008. Technological Empowerment: The Internet, State, and Society in China. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Zou, Chunxia. 2016. “Zhongban guoban fawen: yu zhongda tufa, zhengfu zhuyao fuzeren yao daitou jieshou caifang” (The General Offices of the Central Party Committee and the State Council issued a joint directive: major government leaders accept interviews when important and sudden events occur). Beijing qingnian bao, 18 February.Google Scholar