Whilst I have included the available research from the People’s Republic of China in my academic research, it appears that weuniversally struggle with citizen involvement.
According to the China Daily News for the 6th January 2009, “Channels for public feedback remain inadequate despite government efforts in recent years to solicit more views on the ground, a survey has shown.”
According to a survey: “96.8 percent of respondents said these available channels were ineffective.”The results: “also showed lack of response from government departments and the passing of responsibility to other parties as major problems in collecting public opinion” and: “more than half of respondents said it was “very hard” to get through the hotlines and e-mails were usually ignored.”
Guo Weiqing from Sun Yat-sen University said.
“The websites are only the tools the most important thing is the mentality of government officials and whether they are willing and prepared to communicate with the public,” he said.
“The government needs a new mechanism to face public opinion,” Liu Qinglong, a professor with the School of Public Policy and Management in Tsinghua University, told China Daily. and also stated that “most local governments currently do not have effective procedures to deal with public opinion.”
In a graphic representation of the research, 37.5% preferred to visit and only 10.9% used email, whilst hotlines were used by 25.4%. A startling 50.1% got no response either through ‘phone or email and only 3.2% said they received a timely response on their feedback!
There’s obviously a universal market for the Citizen Engagement Exchange!
The Great E-mancipator 