Participation Disenchants: How Online Political Participation Decreases Online Political Efficacy in China

• 成果类型: Article; Early Access
• 署名作者: Bogs, Anton
• 署名单位: Free University of Berlin
• 刊物名称: REGULATION & GOVERNANCE
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1748-5983
• DOI: 10.1111/rego.12646
• 发表日期: 2024
• 关键词: village elections; unlikely place; GOVERNMENT; authoritarianism; responsiveness; DEMOCRACY; internet; media; consultation; institutions

摘要

Existing literature largely agrees that authoritarian regimes establish channels for political participation to gather valuable information on citizens' anti-regime sentiments and policy preferences and to supervise lower-level bureaucrats and firms. However, we lack knowledge of how citizens-key actors behind this informational function-actually experience these channels. I investigate citizens' experiences in the context of online political participation in China, drawing on survey data and online fieldwork. I find evidence suggesting that initial online political participation significantly decreases feelings of online political efficacy through a disenchantment process in which participating citizens gather sobering first-hand experience and subsequently lower their assessment of the regime's responsiveness. On this basis, I develop a theory of an information-propaganda trade-off that authoritarian regimes face: to obtain more information, authoritarian regimes can encourage more citizens to participate. Once citizens participate, however, they grow disillusioned, and the regime's propaganda becomes less convincing.