Internet Participation in the Process of Public Policy-Making: A Case Study on Social Assistance Measures of China

With the increasing penetration of Internet in the world, the Internet has been becoming an important public space. On the one hand, netizens conduct heated discussions in the process of public policy-making. On the other hand, the governments utilize the Internet to expand public participation in the form of online feedback. Based on policy network theory, this paper presents an analytical framework of Internet participation in the process of public policy-making, and conducts a case study on Social Assistance Temporary Measures of China, which aims to explore the interaction relationships between actors and their influence on the official public policy. The results indicate that many actors such as netizens, experts and medium actively participate in the process of online feedback through media website, microblog, blog, BBS and other channels. They put forward various views and proposals from different perspectives, and make a certain impact on public policy-making.