Research on citizens e participation in policy making process of china

... there is no direct link between the citizens e- participation and the wide applications of Internet The overall outcome of e- participation is subjected to the e- participation environment in one... particular research, online leader’s mailboxes, online interviews, online consultation and e- reporting case channels will be the focus of my discussion (b) how does the e- participation environment in China. .. citizens exercise their influence in each stage of policy- making process Through exploring the inner mechanism in this government-citizen relationship, the research serves to enrich current research

RESEARCH ON CITIZENS’ E-PARTICIPATION IN

POLICY MAKING PROCESS OF CHINA

LIU HUI

A THESIS SUBMITTED FOR

THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF SOCIAL SCIENCES DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL SCIENCE

NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE

2014

I hereby declare that this thesis is my original work and it has been written by me in its

entirety I have duly acknowledged all the sources of information which have been used

in the thesis

This thesis has also not been submitted for any degree in any university previously

LIU HUI 11/08/2014

Thanks to my parents for their emotional support during the writing process Sometimes,

I feel a bit depressed and sick of writing, and they always encourage me to move forward Avery special thanks to them for their great love

I am also very grateful to all the professors and classmates at the Department of PoliticalScience During the two-year study, I have learned a lot from my lecturers and classmates.Even though we have divergent research interests, it is still possible that we can help eachother through many ways

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Introduction 1

Chapter 2: Background of the Emergence of E-participation in China 8

2.1 Conventional Channels for Political Participation in China 8

2.2 The Expansion of New Channels 14

Chapter 3: Literature Review 26

3.1 Debates about the Application of ICTs in Western Countries 26

3.2 Existing Studies on E-participation in China 29

3.3 Research on Conventional E-channels for Participation 33

Chapter 4: Findings 39

4.1 Assessment of the Impact of E-channels on Each Stage of Policy Process 39

4.2 Survey Results 49

Chapter 5: Discussions 54

5.1 Failure of Government Leaders to Recognize the Importance of E-participation 54

5 2 Inadequate Legislation in Safeguarding Citizens’ Rights in E-participation 57

5 3 Passiveness in E-participation Due to Lack of Strong Civic Culture 59

5.4 Digital Divide Resulting in Political Inequality 60

Chapter 6: Policy Suggestions for Improving E-participation Environment 62

6.1 To Change Government Officials’ Attitudes Towards E-participation 62

6.2 To Improve the Network Legislation to Facilitate E-participation 64

6.4 To Eliminate the Digital Gap and Enlarge the Group of Participation 67 Chapter 7: Conclusion 69 References 73 Appendix 83

Under China’s bureaucratic regime, the policy-making process is seen to be inaccessible toordinary citizens through traditional participation channels, thus citizens could only turn tothe virtual cyberspace to express their interests and opinions The ruling party’s newgoverning ideology that is less autocratic and domineering and more consultative has alsocreated the conditions for e-participation to thrive

The purpose of e-participation is to push public policies to fulfill citizens’ needs andwants through various online platforms I argue that citizen’ e-participation facilitates thepolicy-making process mainly in following ways: (a) Many e-platforms are available forthem to make suggestions and comments on the agenda that the government has proposed,thus encouraging more grassroots to participate in political activities; (b) The proliferation ofinteractive platforms allows netizens to make suggestions on policy formulation, but netizenshave no amendment or decisional rights; and (c) It is useful for the government to explain itspolicies through online interviews so that citizens could have a better understanding of thepolicies, thus reducing the resistance in policy implementation stage

List of Figures

Figure 1: Number of Government Websites in China from 2006 to 2014 15

Figure 2: Size and Growth of Netizens in China from 2006 to 2014 16

Figure 3: The Mayor’s Mailbox of Shanghai City 21

Figure 4: The Transportation Management Project Interviews 22

Figure 5: “Wangshangzhengji” Column of Shanghai City 24

Figure 6: The E-reporting Case Channel “Exposure Station” 25

Figure 7: The Purpose of Visiting Government Websites (N=198) 50

Figure 8: Citizens’ Perceptions about the Online Leader’s Mailbox (N=100) 51

Figure 9: The Time of Receiving Replies through the Online Leader’s Mailbox (N=97) 52

Figure 10: Citizens’ Perceptions about the Online Consultation Platform (N=99) 52

Chapter 1: Introduction

The Internet has made profound impact on every aspect of human lives by changing ourmode of production and life, bringing about deep transformation in the human society Withthat, people have increasingly come to realize that Internet is not just a technological power,but also a critical and important political resource (Bimber, 1998; Cornfield, 2000; Davis,1999; Hill ＆ Hughes, 1998; Norris, 1998) According to the report released by the ChinaInternet Network Information Centre (CNNIC), by June 2014, the population of Internetusers has reached 632 million and Internet penetration rate has increased by 1.1% since theend of 2013 to 46.9%, making China the country with the largest number of Internet users inthe world This huge army of Internet users is gradually becoming an influential player inChinese politics that can sway political decisions as netizens can now not only receive tons

of information readily through the Internet and follow up closely on developments inpolitical events but also actively express their political views on online forums, campaign fortheir own interests on cyberspace or even influence government decisions

The effect Internet has on politics has not only become a concern of governments, butalso the academia (Bimber, 2001; Corrado ＆ Firestone, 1996; Jennings ＆ Zeitner, 2003;

among western academics Optimists have positively affirmed the Internet in helping to pushdemocracy to a whole new level as like-minded people can now congregate to make aconcerted effort to influence government decisions on issues that they are concerned aboutwith the aid of this new communication tool On the contrary, pessimists have opined thatthe Internet will do more harm than good to democracy For instance, Norris (2001) claimsthat the digital divide and the monopolization of Internet information will result in certainpeople losing their right to speak and gradually becoming marginalised in political affairs,thus making those who are unable to keep up with e-participation in politics a disadvantagedgroup.

Research on e-politics in China started relatively late and the focus has been one-democracy, online public opinions and policy formulation pertaining to e-participation(Jiang＆Xue, 2009; Li, 2006; Liu, 2006; Ma, 2006; Xie, 2008; Zeng, 2009) However, thecurrent study of e-participation is limited to its mass communication and sociological aspect,and few academics attempted to explain the impacts of e-platforms on government webportals on policy-making through the lens of policy studies Polat’s (2000) study shows thatthere is no direct link between the citizens’ e-participation and the wide applications ofInternet The overall outcome of e-participation is subjected to the e-participationenvironment in one country, such as the political culture Hence, the thesis seeks to answerthe following questions: (a) how could netizens influence the policy-making process through

the e-platforms on government websites? For this particular research, online leader’smailboxes, online interviews, online consultation and e-reporting case channels will be thefocus of my discussion (b) how does the e-participation environment in China influence theuse of e-platforms in practice? For example, how many of netizens are actually takingadvantage of these approaches to influence the policy-making?

This thesis shall explore how citizens exercise their influence in each stage ofpolicy-making process Through exploring the inner mechanism in this government-citizenrelationship, the research serves to enrich current research findings and provide new scope inthe area of research on e-participation, in the hope of making the government realize fullythe importance of government web portals and urging them to strengthen interaction andcommunication with citizens by introducing new communication channels and enhancing theexisting ones Hopefully, this shall eventually promote the healthy development ofdemocratic politics in China Before proceeding any further, it is essential to identify the keyterms in the thesis, including the concepts of the policy-making process, the policy-makingsystem in China, political and e-participation

Broadly speaking, the policy-making process can be referred to as the policy cyclewhich comprises of agenda-setting, policy formulation, policy legitimation, policyimplementation and policy evaluation- the different stages from the birth of a policy issue to

In a narrower sense, policy process refers to the process of policy formulation whichgenerally includes defining a problem, choosing a solution and legitimizing the policy (Chen,2003; Zhang, 2004) According to Dye (2001), in real life, there are plenty of social issues totackle; however, the issues that the government can possibly deal with at any one time arelimited As such, which public issues eventually get into the government’s formal agendabecomes a core concern during the stage of agenda-setting In the process of making a policy,the main focus is to formulate a policy that is feasible and effective Historically, somescholars have suggested various models to describe the policy formulation process, such asthe bounded rationality model (Simon, 1985), the garbage can model (Cohen, Mark＆Olsen,1972), and the incrementalism model (Lindblom, 1968) The next stage after policyformulation is policy legitimation, which is to pass it as laws through legislative proceedings.Policy implementation refers to the work of coordinating and executing the policy, includingexplaining the policy and raising public’s awareness of it, so as to achieve the intended goalsand objectives of the policy The last stage of the policy process is policy evaluationwhereby assessment of the policy is done after implementation to identify areas ofimprovement so that adjustments can be made to the policy.

The policy-making system of Chinese government is characterized by highly-elites’domination and its entire process is closed (Liang ＆ Wang, 2003; Lieberthal ＆Oksenberg,1988; Zhou, 2011) Because China has a large population, vast territory and the imbalanced

development of different regions, this kind of system is very effective and conductive to theuniformity and stability of policy However, it seems that only the elites, such as seniorofficials of the Party or government, rather than the majority of grassroots, can exert greatinfluence on the process Even Secretary Deng Xiaoping sharply criticized the existingpolicy-making system as “all power centralized in the hands of party commitment, and theparty secretaries, in particularly, the first secretary, should be the most powerful participants

in the policy-making process in China” (Wang, 2013, p.52) Also, some policy-makers rely

on their intuitions and experience to make decisions, which may influence the quality ofpolicy product for lacking the strict reasoning process

Xue ＆ Liu (2009) and Wang (2006) argue that China’s policy agenda setting alwaysresponds to the current political propaganda of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Anissue will be considered seriously by policy makers only if it is politically relevant Inaddition, the policy-making process is full of bargaining so as to reach a consensus amongstakeholders Take an environmental protection policy proposal for example Undoubtedly,there should be many conflicts of interest among stakeholders (residents, factories, theEnvironmental Protection Bureau and the related organizations) In order to facilitate theapproval of proposal, it is very likely that each party will make some compromise in order toreach a consensus within a period When it comes to the outcome of policy implementation,

that the higher authorities have policies, the localities have their countermeasures Last butnot the least, the proposals in line with the leaders’ preferences are more likely to beproceeded to the next phase of policy-making process, for that some senior officials of theParty are in charge of centralizing opinions collected from the masses by democratic means.Political participation is limited to involvement in the political and public policy arenawhereas citizen participation includes involvement in the political, cultural, economic andsocial arena Huntington＆Nelson (1976) claim that political participation is an activity byordinary citizens with the aim of influencing government decisions, while Wang (1995)refers to political participation as ordinary citizens trying to influence the political system,the way it functions and the policy process through legitimate means Similarly, Chen (2004)thinks that political participation is about ordinary citizens seeking to influence governmentdecisions and public administration through legitimate means However, this research hopes

to define political participation as citizens’ direct or indirect participation in the policyprocess within the bounds of law and this does not include the appointment and dismissal ofgovernment officials As the widespread use of the Internet has created a new way ofpolitical participation known as e-participation, scholars have been adhering to existingtheories of political participation to define and describe citizens’ e-participation Zhu＆Yang(2006) define e-participation as citizens influencing the policy process through expressingtheir interests and participating in the decision-making process Sun (2007) refers to

e-participation as citizens expressing their personal will and influencing politicaldecision-making by following a specific set of procedures With the emergence of electronicgovernment in China, government web portals have provided citizens with many newplatforms and channels for them to participate actively in governance Citizens can haveonline interactions with government leaders and even provide the government with brilliantand constructive feedback and suggestions Hence, this research will focus on discussingthese new platforms and channels of e-participation such as online leader’s mailboxes, onlineconsultation platforms, online interviews and e-reporting case channels.

This thesis will be structured as follows: The second chapter will provide backgroundinformation about the emergence of citizens’ e-participation Existing channels of politicalparticipation can no longer satisfy the needs and wants of citizens, the new ideology of theruling party has provided the stimulus and conditions necessary for e-participation The thirdchapter will review existing studies about the applications of the Internet in the politicalarena The fourth chapter, being the core chapter of this thesis, will present the main findings

of this thesis The fifth chapter will discuss the main factors in China’s e-participationenvironment that are limiting citizens’ e-participation The sixth chapter will suggest ways toenhance China’s social and political environment to make it more favorable fore-participation The concluding chapter will be a summary of the key findings of this

Chapter 2: Background of the Emergence of E-participation in

China

It is not coincidental that China is experiencing a rising trend in e-participation in recentyears I argue that the conventional channels fail to provide enough chances for thegrassroots to participate, thus they only turn to the virtual cyberspace to express theirinterests and opinions Thus, the increasing number of Internet users and the proliferation ofgovernment web portals contribute to the presence of e-participation Many high-rankingofficials have started to take the initiative to engage in online interactions with netizens uponrealizing the importance of online public opinions This chapter aims to provide backgroundinformation about the emergence of e-participation in China’s context

2.1 Conventional Channels for Political Participation in China

Before 1980s, Chinese citizens have few opportunities to voice, as the policy-makingprocess was strictly controlled by the elites who are resourceful in political networks andskills (Bernstein, 1989; Cai, 2004; Fairbank & Townsend, 1968; Oksenberg, 1967; Waller &James, 1967) Since the late 1980s, political participation has dramatically changed Chinesecitizens are allowed to participate in political activities through many ways: the People’s

Congress system, the policy hearing system, the civil organization channel for participation,and the Letters and Visits approach.

A: The People’s Congress System

The people's congress system is the fundamental system to facilitate political participation inChina Shi (1997) proposed a hierarchical structure of the people’s congress in China: theNational People’s Congress (NPC) held at central level, the provincial people’s congress andpeople’s congress for municipalities, the people’s congress in cities and counties Thepeople’s congress is composed of deputies, who can exercise political rights of managingstate affairs on behalf of voters At the People’s Congress Meeting, deputies can put forwardpolicy proposals with regard to the modification of law or other social issues, therebyinfluencing the policy-making process Besides, the people’s congress has the right tomonitor the policy implementation stage and make suggestions to government agencies so as

to improve government’ performance

However, the existing system can hardly meet citizens’ needs to participate in thepolicy-making process Tsai & Kao (2012) argue that the mechanism of election system inChina is cadres choosing cadres, the CPC has a tight control over the election process For

list of candidates drafted by the Party Those candidates receiving the highest number ofnominations are put forward to the next stage of competitive election … Finally, the Partymakes the ultimate selections from among the names on the list This power is vested in theparty alone, and the so-called masses are no longer involved” (Tsai & Kao,2012, p.489) Inaddition, direct election is only applicable to the deputies at or below county level, whilethose above county level are produced by the next lower level of the People’s Congress As aresult, the information collected from the mass may be distorted due to the multiple proxy.

B: The Policy Hearing System

Policy hearing is a way adopted by the government to gather feedback from stakeholdersduring the policy-making process The public hearing system first appeared in the 1990swhen the Administrative Punishment Law put in place the judicial hearing system foroffences committed by individuals or administrative organs in the public service sector Inrecent years, legislative hearings have been widely implemented to decide on measures orpolicy issues that may become public law and outcomes have since been positive (Ding,1999; Peng＆Xue, 2004)

Though policy hearing has raised the openness and transparency of the policy-makingprocess, it has been mainly used in the policy formulation stage and not the implementationand evaluation stage Some government leaders and officials hold the perception that public

hearings are a waste of time and will lower work efficiency, hence, they are often reluctant tohold public hearings There are also some, despite holding a public hearing, who do not givedue respect and recognition to the outcome of the discussion at the end of it To them, apublic hearing is held only for formality’s sake and this would certainly affect citizens’willingness to participate in the hearing (Gao, 2005; Yang, 1998).

Currently, public hearings on price-setting of public goods and services are morecommon whereas hearings on public policies are rare The legislation regulating a publichearing is also far from rigorous with a lack of details in how it should be implemented, thusresulting in hearings being arbitrary rather than adhering to a strict set of procedures.Furthermore, it was also observed that participants of hearings are often not provided withenough information and time to prepare themselves well for the hearings and many of themalso lacked the professional knowledge to provide suggestions and opinions that are worthyfor further consideration All these would likely impair the function of a public hearing inmaking the policy-making process more consultative

C: Civil Organization Channel

Since civil organizations have emerged in the field of education, public health, and povertyreduction to meet the demand for public services that governments may not fully cover, theycan serve as a platform where citizens are likely to assembly for participation purpose (Cui,2003; Guo, 2007; Yu, 2006; Yue ＆ Qu, 2007; Wang ＆ Liu, 2007) Surprisingly, the term

“civil organizations” has been widely mentioned in daily news and academic papers, nowell-accepted definition can be found in both China’s intellectual circles or officialdocuments Sometimes, it has been translated into “anti-government organizations” in therural areas where the officials have few opportunities to approach civil organizations (Wang

＆Liu, 2007)

However, most of civil organizations fail to separate them from government, and thestate has a tight control over the powerful organizations “The vast majority of China’s civilorganizations was established and led by the government, especially the most influential civilorganizations that are legally registered, such as industry organizations, professionalorganizations, academic associations and interest groups” (Yu, 2006, p.83) In addition,political participation through civil organizations is limited to some insensitive issues, such

as environment protection, food security and air pollution With regard to the laws orregulations, unfortunately, not too many laws or regulations can be found to provide legalbasis to facilitate this mode of participation Without the protection of laws, it would be risky

for citizens to pursue their interests through civil organizations in China, where policiesmight not be stable as that in western democratic countries.

D: The Letters and Visits System

The Letters and Visits system plays an important role in the process of informationcollection so as to facilitate political participation (Cai, 2008; Chen, 2005; Tang, 2008; Yu,2005) Due to pressures from the upper-level government, the local government should takethe issues seriously and address the problems effectively If an issue remains unsolved,citizens can make appeals to the higher-level authority even the central government.However, the appealing process may be inefficient and costly due to the institutionalarrangement “As a result, those making appeals can be trapped in a loop: from the localgovernment to higher-level authorities, and back to the local government”(Cai, 2008, p.94).Besides, citizens can also engage in the policy-making process resorting to demonstrations,protests and strikes, but they should be very cautious about the dramatic modes ofparticipation

2.2 The Expansion of New Channels

Since China initiated the Government Online Project in 1999, the number of websites withgov.cn registered as its domain has reached 52,115 in 2014 and almost all governments ofcounty level and above have their own web portals (CNNIC, 2014) This growing trend ofe-governance has propelled governments to be more open and transparent with data andinformation, making them more readily available to citizens As a result, every ordinarycitizen is now able to express their views freely on these online platforms and policy-makerscan also turn to all these different channels and platforms to gather feedback from thecitizens, guide public discourses and fine tune policies

According to statistics from CNNIC, the population of Chinese netizens grew to 632million—approximately 40% of the total Chinese population—in June 2014, of which therewere 527 million mobile phone users The rate of penetration of the Internet was 46.9%,while the average usage time was 25.9 hours each week, an increase of 4.2 hours within ayear Figure 1 describes the continued growth in China's netizens between 2006 and 2014 Itcan be observed that the total number of Internet users in June 2014 is about five times overthe same period in 2006 Furthermore, the increase in the number of netizens is largest in

2008, while the growth appears to slow down in June 2014, where there is a decrease ofapproximately 1.8% from the previous year

Figure 1: Number of Government Websites in China from 2006 to 2014

Note: Based on the 34th Statistical Report on Internet Development in China in July, 2014,published by the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) Retrieved fromhttp://www.cnnic.net.cn/hlwfzyj/hlwxzbg/hlwtjbg/201407/t20140721_47437.htm

With an increasing population of Internet users, the numbers of Chinese websites andChinese government websites (which can be recognised by the “gov.cn” at the end of theirdomain names) have also been increasing Figure 2 shows the increase in the total number ofgovernment websites between 2005 and 2014 There were only 145 government websites onMay 1998 before the Government Online Project (1999), as of June 2014, there were 2.73

for approximately 2% of the total number of Chinese websites and reflects an increase of1,141 from the same period in 2014 (CNNIC, 2014).

Figure 2: Size and Growth of Netizens in China from 2006 to 2014

Note: Based on the 34th Statistical Report on Internet Development in China in July, 2014,published by the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) Retrieved fromhttp://www.cnnic.net.cn/hlwfzyj/hlwxzbg/hlwtjbg/201407/t20140721_47437.htm

In the initial phase of e-participation, some government officials often take on a hostileattitude towards electronic participation and regard netizens’ participation as harboring evilintentions They think the network is not representative of public opinion, and somegovernment leaders even see e-participation as a contributor to social instability Hence,some government officials turned to deleting posts, shutting down sites and tracking downthose that were seen as causing social instability on the Internet.

However, these strategies did not achieve good results Few years later, some seniorofficials came to realize the importance of online opinions In January 2007, the CPC Centralorganization held a thematic learning session about the development of the networktechnology in the world and the construction and management of network culture in China

At the meeting, President Hu Jintao put forward that government offcials at all levels shouldfocus on mastering Internet knowledge to hone their leadership and strive to create a newnorm for China’s Internet culture On June 20th 2008, President Hu Jintao logged in to theBBS of “qianguoluntan” and interacted with netizens online The general secretary of theCPC said: “We are very concerned netizens’ comments We emphasize on ‘people-oriented,governing for the people’ and thus when we do things or make decisions, we need to listen tothe people to gather opinions and concentrate wisdom The Internet is an important channel

to understand their needs and gather wisdom” (Chen＆Deng, 2002)

From 2009 to 2011, for consecutively three years, Premier Wen Jiabao alsocommunicated with netizens before the two sessions The emphasis on public network by thecentral government can be epitomized by Premier Wen’s speech: “I have long-awaited tocommunicate with netizens I believe I can hear more opinions and demands expressed bynetizens through this kind of communication Internet users can also know more aboutgovernment's policies too A government for the people should be a government which keeps

in touch with the people There are various ways to communicate but the use of networktechnology is certainly a good way” (Wang, 2013)

As for local governments, in February 3th, 2008, Wang Yang, the Secretary ofGuangdong Province, issued “A Letter to the Guangdong Netizens” through major newswebsites to invite netizens to give suggestions to improve government’ performance Afterthis open letter was issued, about 50,000 responses were received by the Guangdonggovernment and the number of hits exceeded 10 million times In 2012, in communicationParty held in Guangdong Province, Secretary Wang Yang said: “I read messages on Sinamicroblog every day On this platform but also, we are dare to say more directly and moresharply Some critical voices make us more alert” On December 29th, 2010, China’s firstprovincial government’s microblog was launched by Sichuan Provincial People’sGovernment Information Office which managed to clock 260 visits merely four hours after itwas launched According to statistics revealed by “The Report of Official Microblog in Sina

in the First 6 Months of 2014”, by the end of 26th June 2014, Sina microblog had certified119,169 government microblogs and in a way, these microblogs had become new platformsfor interaction between the government and the public (Wang, 2013).

With the deepening of e-government, some interactive platforms between governmentand the public began to emerge on government websites at all levels, such as the onlineleader mailbox, online interviews, and the online consultation column Netizens can interacteffectively with government officials or other netizens, thereby influencing thepolicy-making process In some developed cities, the ways of interaction are much morediversified For instance, the netizens can scan two-dimensional code by phone to land inShanghai government’s website anytime and anywhere This paper focuses on four types ofe-platforms widely used on government websites and explore how they influence thepolicy-making process

A: The Online Leader’s Mailbox

Currently, it is estimated that more than 90% Chinese government websites have opened upthe leader’s mailbox to facilitate communications between government and citizens Thenames of the leader mailboxes may be varied at different government websites (themayor-mail, governor-mail), but their functions are analogous For example, the ShanghaiGovernment website provides the resumes, photos and responsibilities of the party secretaryand the mayor to guide citizens to write e-letters The mailbox of Shanghai MunicipalCommittee and the Mayor’s maibox count the daily number of letter and the response for thepurpose of future statistical analyses The response rate of letters by functional departments

in Shanghai had reached 70.51%, and the rate of public satisfaction rate reached 99.94%from January 1, 2014 to November 14, 2014

Figure 3: The Mayor’s Mailbox of Shanghai City

Picture from Shanghai Government web portal retrieved fromhttp://www.shanghai.gov.cn/shanghai/node2314/szzcnew/index.html

B: The Online Interview Platform

The online interview platform mainly serves the purpose of promoting and explainingpolicies to netizens by using advanced technologies For instance, in order to improve theBeijing traffic congestion situation, the Beijing municipal government website initiated aseries of online interviews, namely the “Transportation Management Project” since June

2013 until May 2014 In order to facilitate citizens’ involvement in the online interview,Beijng website offers interviews notice, past events, guests resume, interview summaries,videos, photos, text record and other information

Figure 4: The Transportation Management Project Interviews

Picture from Beijing Government web portal retrieved fromhttp://shipin.beijing.gov.cn/option/com_content/ItemId/73/

C: The Online Consultation Channel

The online consultation channel is put in place with the intention to seek public opinions andsuggestions on new or existing laws and policies Citizens can express their views through alink provided by the website or through e-mail Netizens can express their views through thelinks provided by government websites On some advanced government websites, onlinefeedback are summarized, and users can query on a topic of the project to see how manypeople participated in the consulting process “Wangshangzhengji” is the consultationcolumn on Shanghai government website, which allows netizens to put forward suggestionspertaining to the specific topics By the end of November 18, 2014, the Shanghaigovernment website disclosed 14 projects for public consultation, involving many aspectssuch as food safety, public services, laws and regulations

Figure 5: “Wangshangzhengji” Column of Shanghai City

Picture from Shanghai Government web portal retrieved fromhttp://service.shanghai.gov.cn/newdtbs/OpenMes/ConsultRoofMore_113_115_116.html

D: The E-reporting Case Channel

Due to some reasons, the outcome of policy implementation may be altered from centralauthorities to local entities Therefore, many government websites open the e-reporting casechannel to receive citizens’ complaints to monitor the policy implementation stage Forinstance, the Exposure Station established by the Commission for Discipline Inspection ofCPC, aims to receive reports involving undesirable work styles, seems more user-friendlycompared to the conventional mode of reporting Specifically, it is compulsory for reporters

to indicate the level of government that the case involves, the type of reporting issue and the

Figure 6: The e-reporting case channel “Exposure Station”

Picture from the Commission for Discipline Inspection of CPC web portal retrieved from

http://www.ccdi.gov.cn/special/bgtzt/

Chapter 3: Literature Review

Since the mid-1990s, the Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) havedeveloped rapidly worldwide This Internet revolution or more commonly known as thedigital revolution has brought about the onset of the information age Today, the Internet hasmade a profound impact on all aspects of people’s life, including transforming the waypeople participate in politics (Best＆Krueger, 2005; Davis, 1998; Polat, 2005; Wang, 2007)

3.1 Debates about the Application of ICTs in Western Countries

Western scholars often affirm the positives roles and functions played by the Internet inpolitical participation, and many of them believe that the extensive applications of the ICTshad brought people into the new era of “electronic democracy” which speeds up the process

of democratization (Bellamy, 2003; Browning, 2002; Cavanaugh, 2000; Macintosh＆Robson,2003; Norris, 2001; Simon , 2010) Specifically, Browning (2002) argues that in the Internetsociety, citizens can unite themselves under a common infterest and make a concerted effort

to influence government decisions Simon (2010) believes that the Internet offers morepossibilities for deliberative democracy as netizens are now able to comment and discussabout political events and government policies anytime and anywhere and even approach

government officials directly through the Internet Cavanaugh (2000) also claims that theInternet encourages those who are marginalized in the society to take part in politics Inaddition, Browning (1996) and Norris (2001) find that the application of ICTs actuallyfacilitates electronic election process in some western democratic countries This can beillustrated by the United States’ presidential election held in 2000: “With customizedcomputer software packages, such tasks as tracking down lists of registered voters withupdated street and telephone numbers, which used to require hours of work by scores ofcampaign volunteers, can now be accomplished by a handful of staffers in minutes” (Norris,

2001, p 87)

However, despite all the affirmations, there are pessimists who opined that the Internetwill bring about adverse effects on democracy (Chadwick, 2008; Haque, 2002; Heeks, 2002;Polat, 2005; Selwyn, 2002; Weede, 1983) Haque (2002) argues that the digital divide inIndia has worsened social inequality in terms of the right to political participation as thoserural dwellers that are poor and illiterate are more likely to be completely excluded fromelectronic participation In addition, Polat’s (2000) study shows that there are three roles thatthe Internet plays in the political sphere: as information resources, as a medium of exchangeand as the public domain Through the analysis of these three roles, he came to an importantconclusion: there is no direct link between the political participation of citizens and the wide

everyone can get access to it anytime and anywhere Polat’s (2000) study also indicates thatthe overall outcome of electronic participation is subjected to certain social parameters,including the country’s level of economic development, the penetration rate of Internet, theeducational status of its citizens and political and cultural factors that directly restrict therealization of democracy.

Why do some citizens engage in the political activities while others do not? Previousscholars have successfully identified many factors that may influence political participation,including age, income, education, civic orientations and motivation factor (Beck & Jennings,1982) The basic socioeconomic status model (“SES model”) has been widely accepted toexplain why the socioeconomic factors matter in terms of predicating participation Manyempirical studies have found that a) individuals with the money resources are more likely toengage in some political campaigns For example, they can donate money to support thecandidates who share the same interests with them in election campaigns; b) those who arerelatively free are more likely to take part in the political activities, as they have enough time

to write letters to the authority or attend the community meetings; c) citizens with good civilskills are more likely to participate effectively, as they know the proper way to communicatewith government officials The acquisition of civil skills is closely related to educationattainment, which is an important indicator to measure civil skills “Those with higher levels

of education are more likely to speak English at home, to have better vocabulary skills, and

to have taken part in high school government Civil skills acquired as an adult at work, inorganizations, and in church are also stratified by education” (Beck & Jennings, 1982,p.275).

3.2 Existing Studies on E-participation in China

Chinese scholars embarked on the research of the Internet later than their westerncounterparts and their research mainly focused on the following areas: Internet politics,Internet participation, Internet media, and governance in the Internet age (Jiang＆Xue, 2009;Kluver, 2005; Li, 2006; Liu, 2006; Ma, 2006; Xie, 2008; Zeng, 2009; Zhu, 2010) Zhu (2010)segmented e-participation in China into four periods: (a) the initial stage (1994-1998): thenumber of Internet users is rather small and the online debates are mainly about academicissues; (b) the initial development phase of the Internet (1998-2003): citizens began toexpress their views on public policy through the Internet, but governments rarely respond; (c)development and growing stage (2003-2008): citizens’ participation began to have asubstantial impact on the policy-making process but their influence are quite limited; (d) amatured phase of Internet participation (2008 now): as civic networks are highlyappreciated by governments, the Internet has become a bridge of communication betweengovernments and citizens

With regard to the impact of the Internet on China’s democratic politics, optimistsbelieve that the Internet can be widely used in the political arena to promote and fasten theprocess of democratization (Gu, 2010; Li, 2006; Liu, 2002; Lollar, 2006; Xu＆Wan, 2008;Wang, 2011) Liu (2002) argues that the conventional channels of participation fail toprovide sufficient platforms to enhance citizens’ involvement and thus the Internet actuallyserves to broaden the channels for political participation as citizens can readily learn aboutpolitical affairs and participate in the policy-making process through government websites,forums, blogs, e-mail and other electronic platforms Besides that, Hu (2008) and Lee (2009)claim that e-platforms are conducive to the true expression of public opinions and canenthuse people to be more involved in politics Traditionally, citizens have to participate inpolitics with real identification; hence many may choose to conceal their views from thepublic sphere and are reluctant to participate in politics openly out of fear of undesirableconsequences that may befall upon them Now with the Internet, they can do soanonymously In addition, Gu (2010) claims that the Internet overcomes time and spacebarriers of political participation that are caused by geographical and other factors, andencourage more grassroots to participate in politics.

However, some scholars opined that there are many problems that have emerged withe-participation For instance, the features of Internet such as anonymity, openness, virtualspace and the imperfect legal system governing the Internet have resulted in netizens making

untrue statements or false accusations on people online In real life, people are usuallybounded by laws and regulations, societal customs and moral considerations, but in thevirtual world, users get to enjoy exceptional freedom without all these constraints Someusers even use the Internet as a tool of crime to steal personal information or use the Internetfor fraud.

Furthermore, Jiang ＆ Liu (2011) argue that some irrational expressions of netizens areaffected by national sentiments and herd mentality, resulting in inefficient e-participation.Using the incident of some Chinese boycotting “Carrefour” in 2008 as an example, manyusers see the boycott of French companies or products as a patriotic act Some netizensjoined in the boycott without thinking through the issue thoroughly and rationally whilethose who call for rational patriotism only drew abuse upon themselves from netizens.Huang (2011) found that netizens’ emotional behaviors on the Internet would make itdifficult for the government to manage the Internet Extreme views and provocativeexpressions on the network will agitate users to behave radically which will then affect order

in the cyberspace and even cause social unrest in real life As most of Chinese netizens areyoung people who are often inexperienced and impulsive, it is more likely to cause a “massincident” on the cyberspace

More importantly, Chen (2005), Fu (2003), and Wei＆Zhang (2007) argue that there is a

Internet to participate in the policy-making process Due to the central government’sgeographical and regional development strategies, the economic development of China’sdifferent regions has been rather imbalanced The existence of the digital gap has causedcitizens who have no or little access to the Internet to be marginalized Their politicaldemands are not easily represented or are simply neglected In other words, even if a policyappears to be supported by the majority of Internet users, it does not necessarily mean thatthe support is representative of the general will of the population Currently, the majority ofChinese netizens are young people whose age are under 39 and most users of forums, blogsand microblogs belong to this group, hence the public opinion expressed on these platforms

is obviously biased and not a true reflection of the political demands of all social classes andage groups in China and the government’s public policy may thus become a policy favoringonly a particular group of people

3.3 Research on Conventional E-channels for Participation

With the continuous development of the Internet technology, many new platforms haveemerged for citizens to participate in the policy-making process, such as online forums,government websites, blogs, and micro blogs Wang (2013) argues that these communicationplatforms accelerated the pace of a public agenda gaining importance to become part of thegovernment’s agenda In addition, Internet involvement actually helps the public to identifywith the policy, thus raising support for it This will also break the monopoly of thebureaucracy in policy implementation Before the Internet came about, policyimplementation is often a black box with rampant abuse of public power due to the lack ofcitizens’ participation Now, with the proliferation of online platforms, citizens are able tomonitor the implementation of policies anytime and anywhere

Hence, it is important for us to understand how each communication platformcontributes to e-participation and how they play a part in influencing the policy-makingprocess so that we could devise plans to tap on these e-platforms effectively in theenhancement of e-participation in China