SOAS Research Online

Abstract

This article develops a conceptual framework to understand government response to citizens’ social media participation in public policy making and identifies four participation-response archetypes: the Ostrich, the Cuckoo, the Queen Bee, and the Mandarin Duck modes. Drawing on analysis of 136 cases in China, the Cuckoo mode, in which public opinions are pre-expressed and government is reactive, was the predominant response observed. Incidents of the Ostrich mode, avoiding or denying citizen voice, occur but are declining, while the Queen Bee mode of government-led communication is increasing. The Mandarin Duck mode, characterized by high levels of online political participation by both citizens and government, was rare. The four modes offer a way of classifying government response to social media political participation and enable governments to more effectively integrate the views of citizens into the policy-making process.