The internet ecological perception, political trust and political efficacy of Chinese netizens

Political efficacy is an important indicator of political democracy. As the Internet, especially social media, has grown and evolved, it has greatly changed the Chinese public's political perceptions. Chinese Internet governance has shifted the mode of “vague governance” and “subsequent punishment” from traditional political governance into the Internet ecology. Chinese citizens' speech criteria and means of political participation depend largely on their perceptions of the political ecology. Based on a questionnaire survey conducted in Jiangsu Province (N = 1558) in 2013, this paper discusses the impact of Internet ecological perception and political trust on netizens' political efficacy. The results show that netizens' perceptions of Internet ecology had significantly positive effects on external political efficacy but no significant effects on internal political efficacy. Netizens' perceptions of Internet ecology positively affected their political trust, which in turn had significant, positive effects on both internal and external political efficacies.