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.