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Parsing the Effect of the Internet on Regime Support in China

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 May 2018

Min Tang  and
Narisong Huhe
Min Tang
Affiliation:
Min Tang is Associate Professor in the School of Public Economics and Administration at Shanghai University of Finance and Economics
Narisong Huhe*
Affiliation:
Narisong Huhe is a Lecturer in Politics at the University of Strathclyde
*
*Corresponding author. Email: hoohnaris@gmail.com
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Abstract

Although the internet is severely censored in China, negative reporting and critical deliberations of political institutions and policy issues, especially low-profile ones, have been abundant in cyberspace. Given such a mixed pattern of online information, this study explores the complexity of the effect of the internet on regime support by parsing it into direct effect and indirect effect. It argues that the internet indirectly erodes its viewers’ overall support for the authoritarian regime by decreasing their evaluation of government performance. The findings from a mediation analysis of a Beijing sample support this argument. The result of one analysis also indicates that the direct effect of internet use on regime support can be positive. Such findings about the effect of the internet in China help advance our understanding of both political and theoretical implications of the spread of the internet in authoritarian countries.

Keywords

internetpolitical supportperformance evaluationgovernment censorshipmediation analysis
Type
Articles
Information
Government and Opposition , Volume 55 , Issue 1 , January 2020 , pp. 130 - 146
Copyright
Copyright © The Authors 2018. Published by Government and Opposition Limited and Cambridge University Press 

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