title: Selective responsiveness: Online public demands and government responsiveness in authoritarian China.
abstract: The widespread use of information and communication technology (ICT) has reshaped the public sphere in the digital era, making online forums a new channel for political participation. Using big data analytics of full records of citizen-government interactions from 2008 to early 2014 on a nationwide political forum, we find that authoritarian China is considerably responsive to citizens' demands with a rapid growth of response rate; however, government responsiveness is highly selective, conditioning on actors' social identities and the policy domains of their online demands. Results from logistic and duration models suggest that requests which made by local citizens, expressed collectively, focused on the single task issue, and are closely related to economic growth are more likely to be responded to. These strategies adopted by Chinese provincial leaders reveal the scope and selectivity of authoritarian responsiveness.
authors.affiliation: Department of Government and Public Administration, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, HK, PR China.
authors.forename: Zheng
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Su
authors.affiliation: Department of Political Science, School of Social Sciences, Tsinghua University, Mingzhai 130, Tsinghua Yuan No.1, Haidian District, Beijing 100084, China. Electronic address: maxmeng@tsinghua.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Tianguang
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Meng
mesh_terms: D022126:Access to Information; D002681:China; D003142:Communication; D003254:Consumer Advocacy; D006076:Government; D006801:Humans
keywords: Authoritarianism; Big data; China; Online forum; Selective responsiveness