Microblogs and the Adaptation of the Chinese Party‐State's Governance Strategy

Abstract

The Chinese party-state is currently adapting its governance strategy. The recent debate in China on the role of microblogs in the governance process, as documented in the reports issued by Chinese research institutes and advisory bodies, illustrates the efforts being undertaken by China's political elites to integrate microblogs into their new public management strategy. Mass protests and large-scale online criticism-voiced via microblogsdirectly threaten the regime's survival. As a consequence, legitimacy is no longer regarded as being inherent, but as something that has instead to be permanently regained and reaffirmed. To increase the system's efficiency and to generate a new kind of symbolic legitimacy, China's political elites tend to base the political decision-making process on strategic calculations intended to be reflective of public online opinion. The turn toward a more responsive way of governing by the Chinese party-state demonstrates once more the adaptability of authoritarian one-party states in the digital era.

Political determinants of e-government performance revisited: Comparing democracies and autocracies

“…Such a mix of instruments can circumvent the "dilemma of the dictator" (Wintrobe, 1998; see also Göbel, 2013, p. 388), which means governing in an environment of low information quality and marginal citizen trust because of the repressive nature of autocratic rule. Deliberative instruments include a partial media liberalization (Egorov, Guriev, & Sonin, 2009;Lorentzen, 2014;Stier, 2015), government usage of microblogs (Noesselt, 2014) and allowing some government criticism online (King, Pan, & Roberts, 2013). However, these instruments inhere a potential for collective action, as they can also be used by the political opposition.…”

Social Media and Local Governments

“…Governments also embrace the bandwagon to engage the public and rebuild public legitimacy (Noesselt 2014 ), making 2010 immediately becomes the milestone of government microblogging development (Zheng 2013 ;Schlaeger and Jiang 2014 ).…”

Official microblogging and social management by local governments in China

“…22 After surveying the Chinese government's uses of and attitudes toward social media, she concluded that the CCP has come to view social media, including microblogging, as a route to popular political legitimacy. 22 After surveying the Chinese government's uses of and attitudes toward social media, she concluded that the CCP has come to view social media, including microblogging, as a route to popular political legitimacy.…”