On The Self-organizing And Self-stabilizing Mechanism Of Public Opinion

This dissertation is a research on public opinion in the light of general system theory. It reviews the existing research on public opinion with a systematic outlook, revealing the hidden problems and limitations on one hand, and then applies the systematic outlook to public opinion research in an exemplary way, trying to solve the problems and limitations in question.In the existing researches on public opinion, the researchers usually treat the three-dimensional relations between the elements of public opinion as a linear progressive one, and consider the sustained developing process of public opinion as a closed one, which is pointed out as a "plane outlook on public opinion" by the author. On the meanwhile, Chinese public opinion researches have being kept too far away from some integral research fields of public opinion, such as press freedom, press legislation, as well as the interactive relations between public opinion and decision-making system, which makes their research lack of depth and logic.This dissertation demonstrates that public opinion can and should be considered as a dynamic system, and the development of public opinion is actually a continuous information processing progress in which the public opinion system can realize its "self-organizing and self-stabilizing" potential. By a self-organizing and self-stabilizing mechanism, the public opinion system can adjust its development and correct some temporary non-rational opinions. When public opinion has self-organized and self-stabilized, it contains a kind of potential of adjusting and promoting social development, which will be released as real kinetic energy during the process of its interaction with decision-making system. The realization of public opinion system's self-organization and self-stabilization relies on a certain of inner and outer conditions, such as the realization of press freedom, which is a necessarily condition for public opinion system, and the establishment of reasonable press legal system, which is a protective condition for public opinion system. In the light of systematic outlook on public opinion, the research field of so-called "public opinion guide" in China is somehow a false proposition, for the change of public opinion is based on the change of information input into the public opinion system. Therefore, the most convenient and effective way of "guiding" public opinion should be measures based on information instead of administrative power.When public opinion is taken as a dynamic system, its mechanism of self-organizing and self-stabilizing is thus revealed. And by discussing the protective and restrictive conditions needed by public opinion system, the research fields such as press freedom, press legislation and the relations between public opinion and decision-making system are then linked in a logic way, which actually revealed a new idea and pattern for public opinion research.