Policy Criticism: New Form of Civic Participation under Network Environment in China

As a new form of civic participation, civic policy criticism behavior can enhance political trust and scientific decision-making in China. This research points out that civic policy criticism behavior are resulted from three aspects. The first one is people's dissatisfied mood brought by different social contradictions during the transitional period. The second one is more and more open internet environment, which provides a convenient channel for draining this mood. The last but not least is social conformity, which results in collective irrationality, amplifying the voice of policy criticism. The rise of online-opinion leaders deconstructs and weakens the discourse system dominated by the official and mainstream media. They become the guide, spokesman and booster of the public. Chinese civic policy criticism shows complexity and diversity under the fusion of tradition and reality. Therefore, the trust to high-level government coexists with the criticism to grass-root government, and the pursuit of real interests demands with the social justice. And policy criticism behavior shows diversities among citizens in different areas, of different ages and with different education backgrounds.