The Path Of The Online Public Sphere To Public Decision Making

A modern countries ruled by law should be public-private clearly andfreedom-responsibility clearly. Here, the positive interaction between the citizen andthe state、the public and the society can maintain the democracy and the Law rule,which means there should be a healthy public sphere. The new internet technologiesand the electronic information digital era provided a public space to the citizens forparticipating in government and a platform to the government decision makers forperceiving the public opinion. It also expanded the public activity space greatly.Using the method of case analysis, comparative analysis, literature consultation,and comparative analysis of multiple cases which influence the policy making, thispaper probes into how the public opinion of online public sphere forms and how itinfluences the policy making.The research shows that the online public sphere and the traditional publicdomain have different structures and operation mechanisms.The influence path of theonline public sphere to the public decision making can be divided into two types: oneis the public media active path, other is the government initiative path. The onlinepublic sphere contains three elements: the equal participants, the public space forrational debate and idea exchange, and the formation of network public opinion.Theonline public sphere can close the distance between the decision makers and thegeneral public.It provides a way for equal participation in public policy, then thepublic can supervise and criticize the public policy, and it also contributes to socialconsensus. Finally, the formation of social public opinion can role in public policywith the scope and effects of the online public sphere expanding, but the traditionalmedia may remain silent during this process. Certainly, the online public sphere alsohas some inevitable defects.This paper can provide support for standardizing the network behavior cognitiveand a basis for the scientific public policy making. And with the network environmentupgrading and improving, it should do further study on the influence path of it to thepublic policy in the new conditions, then it should construct the general theory of how the online public sphere influences the public policy.