Influence of Social Networks on Citizens’ Willingness to Participate in Social Governance: Evidence from China

Social networks are social structure constituted by a set of social actors with embedded relationships, which has a significant impact on both perceptions and behaviors among individuals and groups. The influence of the social networks on citizens’ willingness to participate in social governance is manifested in two aspects: one is that social networks directly affects the citizens’ willingness to participate; the other is the social capital made up by social networks, social trust, and social norms affects the citizens’ willingness to participate. Drawing on a transprovincial survey regarding citizen participation in the social networks, this paper uses the Ordered Logistic model to explore how does social networks affect the citizens’ willingness to participate. The results show that (1) social networks have a significant impact on citizens’ willingness to participate in social governance, specifically, the stronger the social networks are, the higher level of the citizens’ willingness to participate will be; (2) social networks, together with social trust and social norms constitute social capital, and the social capital has a significant impact on the citizens’ willingness to participate in social governance, which is manifested; the higher the social capital stock is, the higher level of the citizens’ willingness to participate will be; and (3) from the lens of demographic characteristics, those who are male, high educated, CCP members, or from the eastern region of China are more willing to participate.