互联网公共论坛:政治参与和协商民主的兴起

协商民主是20世纪晚期在政治学界兴起的一种民主理论.互联网公共论坛作为一种立基于新传播技术之上的参与方式,打破了空间、时间的限制,增加了公民全面的参与以及公民与政府之间直接沟通的可能性.随着网络在中国的普及,中国公民越来越多地借助互联网来获取政治信息,通过互联网的公共论坛及时、明确地表达自己的政治意愿,并且与政府发生互动.互联网公共论坛中的政治参与在"近似地"实践着协商性民主的理想,体现了民主的价值和精神.虽然互联网公共论坛还有待于规范,但这种政治参与方式在推动公民政治参与的广度、促进社会秩序的稳定和政府决策的优化等方面,无疑都将起到积极的作用.

The Internet Public Forum: the Rise of Deliberative Democracy

Deliberative democracy is a new form of the western democracy theories appearing in the 1990s, being currently a lively topic in Political Philosophy. Public deliberation, which is a process of political community members' participation in public discussion and critically scanning public policy-making, is the core of deliberative democracy. To deliberative democracy the most challenging issue is possibly how to turn public deliberation into a public forum, through which people can express their own opinions equally, and attend the deliberative dialogue freely, whereas every citizen's demand and interest can be considered in earnest. The popularization of the Internet and the appearance of the Internet public forums in China have created a possibility for public deliberation.The expansion of the Internet is progressing at a rapid pace in China and penetrating the Chinese social life although left at the starting gate during the initial days. The Internet public forum has become a channel to deliver public opinions. In one sense, the Internet public forum is practicing the ideal of deliberative democracy. The process of the participation in the Internet public forum embodies the heart of deliberative democracy.The Internet public forum just becomes a social space and an abstract public sector through this intercourse. And the deliberation of the Internet public forum has pushed political policy-making more transparent and democratic. The Internet public forum based on the new transit technologies has overcome the limitation of political participation on time and space, widen space for liberty of speech, increased the possibility of the direct communication between citizens, and between citizens and government.This new political participation now has some problems, although the rise and development of the Internet public forum have provided a possibility for the realization of the ideal of deliberative democracy theory, and at the same time can promote actively China's democracy development.