Participation Disenchants: How Online Political Participation Decreases Online Political Efficacy in China

Abstract

Existing literature largely agrees that authoritarian regimes establish channels for political participation to gather valuable information on citizens' anti-regime sentiments and policy preferences and to supervise lower-level bureaucrats and firms. However, we lack knowledge of how citizens—key actors behind this informational function—actually experience these channels. I investigate citizens' experiences in the context of online political participation in China, drawing on survey data and online fieldwork. I find evidence suggesting that initial online political participation significantly decreases feelings of online political efficacy through a “disenchantment” process in which participating citizens gather sobering first-hand experience and subsequently lower their assessment of the regime's responsiveness. On this basis, I develop a theory of an “information-propaganda trade-off” that authoritarian regimes face: to obtain more information, authoritarian regimes can encourage more citizens to participate. Once citizens participate, however, they grow disillusioned, and the regime's propaganda becomes less convincing.