A Study on the Phased Change in Political Participation of Chinese Citizen

Abstract

Political participation has an important significance in political democracy and national governance in modern society which is also the basic operating system of modern democracy. Chinese citizens' political participation has always emphasized the concept of democracy in terms of not laying the foundation of the socialist political system. However, previous studies analyze the political participation of Chinese citizens in terms of institutional and case studies, not in macro-level. Therefore, this study examines the time-series changes and current status of Chinese citizen political participation at a macro level. The early form of Chinese civic political participation was mobilization-type political participation, which was an important driving force to break away from the feudal era and maintain a stable state system in the early days of the modern China. The next form that emerged is participation in various 'movement' dimensions reflecting the times when economic development was prioritized with independent civic political participation at a limited level. In the third stage, the form of government-led political participation appeared intensively after the 2000s, and at the same time, it was a process of more democratic political reform and institutionalization of citizens' political participation. The last stage is political participation in China's policy criticism, which is expanding based on ICT. A new form of political participation is emerging around online networked opinion leaders, which will establish itself as a basic participation method for generations living in the smart era in the future. Based on this analysis, the paper is concluded by presenting suggestions and limitations for the sound development of Chinese civic politics.