Will the Internet Form the Public Sphere in China?

Abstract

The Western perspective in examining the political impact of the Internet concentrates on whether this new medium will revitalize the public sphere so as to further representative democracy to ideal form of participatory democracy. This paper examines the political impact of the Internet on China, a large developing country that lacks sophisticated representative democratic politics. It analyzes the revolutionary changes that the Internet has brought to the Chinese Internet users and the government's regulations on the new medium. It asks whether the Internet will form the Habermasian public sphere in China and concludes that the Internet enhances the Chinese netter's political participation, but it needs long-term research to decide to what extent the Internet will improve democracy in China.

Keywords

• political impact
• Internet
• China
• democracy