Digital Democracy and Cultural Politics:E-Governance and Cyber Policy in the Age of Web 2.0

Cyber-libertarianism was widely acclaimed in the age of web2.0 for its interactivity and collaboration. When euphorically envisioning the arrival of digital democracy by the cyber-libertarians, some conservatives are also anxious of its negative political effects which may challenge the authority of ruling ideology. Should cyber space be kept under surveillance? The paper, based on a comparative study of cyber policies between US and China, attempts to explore the topic from the following aspects: A. why cyber space would be a well favored platform of the mass; B. whether governments should impose a stringent control on cyber space for blocking off the "politically incorrect"; C. What is the proactive public policy beneficial both for the dominant elites as well as for the petitions of the grass-root; D. The relationship between free flow of information, democratic society and national security.