Influence of Social Networks on Citizens’ Willingness to Participate in Social Governance: Evidence from China

Abstract

Social networks are social structure constituted by a set of social actors with embedded relationships, which has a significant impact on both perceptions and behaviors among individuals and groups. The influence of the social networks on citizens’ willingness to participate in social governance is manifested in two aspects: one is that social networks directly affects the citizens’ willingness to participate; the other is the social capital made up by social networks, social trust, and social norms affects the citizens’ willingness to participate. Drawing on a transprovincial survey regarding citizen participation in the social networks, this paper uses the Ordered Logistic model to explore how does social networks affect the citizens’ willingness to participate. The results show that (1) social networks have a significant impact on citizens’ willingness to participate in social governance, specifically, the stronger the social networks are, the higher level of the citizens’ willingness to participate will be; (2) social networks, together with social trust and social norms constitute social capital, and the social capital has a significant impact on the citizens’ willingness to participate in social governance, which is manifested; the higher the social capital stock is, the higher level of the citizens’ willingness to participate will be; and (3) from the lens of demographic characteristics, those who are male, high educated, CCP members, or from the eastern region of China are more willing to participate.

Towards Use of Capability, Opportunity and Motivation Model in Predicting Ugandan Citizens’ Behavior towards Engagement in Policy Formulation through E-participation

“…This finding was also supported by Jagannathan et al (2021) with results revealing that capability in terms of social network encourages community participation in community-related initiatives using the principles of community organization and this helps to produce desired outputs and improve the well-being of the participants through better and representative policies (Jagannathan et al, 2021). They are also in line with the study findings of Nan and Ouyang (2020) who reported that capability in terms of social networks has a significant role it plays in increasing citizens' ability and willingness to use engagement tools to engage in policy formulation through e-participation more so when the network ties are strong (Nan and Ouyang, 2020;Starke et al, 2020). This is further…”

“…Besides that, study findings of Jagannathan et al (2021) reported that social network encourages community participation in community-related initiatives and citizen engagement in policy formulation. Also, the study findings of Nan and Ouyang (2020) reported that social networks play a significant role in increasing citizens' ability and willingness to use engagement tools to engage in policy formulation through e-participation. United Nations (2020) also found that the presence of strong network ties among citizens as actors help increase citizens' engagement in giving views for policy formulation.…”

“…The Model of Acceptance with Peer Support by Sykes et al (2009) also found that opportunity and capability influence user behavior. This is achieved by giving their views following effective social interaction and reduced risk of information asymmetry and cost of participation and support of collective action (Nan and Ouyang, 2020). Thus, a great need still exists to link support of political Institutions, ICT Infrastructure, and social networks with citizen engagement to determine if positive engagement results could be realized (Asher et al, 2019;Peixoto and Fox, 2016).…”

“…On the contrary, ITU, (2020) identified accessibility to stable and reliable internet and freedom of expression as critical factors to citizen engagement. Furthermore, Nan and Ouyang (2020) identified social networks as a significant and critical factor in increasing citizens' ability and willingness to use electronic tools to engage in policy formulation (Nan and Ouyang, 2020;Starke et al, 2020). Given the low engagement levels of Ugandan citizens in policy formulation and different findings on engagement success factors by different scholars, it was deemed necessary to find out how the three factors of opportunity, motivation, and capability interact with each other and influence citizen engagement in policy formulation through e-participation.…”

Social Network Structure as a Moderator of the Relationship between Psychological Capital and Job Satisfaction: Evidence from China

“…erefore, it is important for Chinese enterprises and all other organizations to take action to ensure justice in the recruitment process. For instance, managers could ensure a fair procedure in recruitment and more transparent decision making, in order to reduce the factors, which lead to unfairness [55,56]. e study is not without its limitations.…”