The Logic of Denial: An Analysis on the Arguments of the Official Responses on the “Public Policy Participation Network Platform”

• Main Authors: Lin, Yen-Chun, 林彥君
• Other Authors: Huang, Tong-Yi
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2018
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/y838q9

碩士 === 國立政治大學 === 行政管理碩士學程 === 106 === In response to the evolution of information and communication technologies and social change, the e-Government program in Taiwan has expanded from online public service delivery to netizen participation. In 2015, the National Development Council launched the Public Policy Network Participation Platform, a transparent online platform designed to allow citizens to voice their opinions regarding public policies and thus, to enhance trust between the public and the government. However, the use of such a platform poses grave challenges to the government. Two years after the platform came online, a survey found that citizens using the platform re-ported a low sense of political efficacy and low satisfaction with the government’s responses. The present study argued that the government should offer compelling evidence as a basis for policy communication to encourage rational communication with the public. Therefore, the present study aimed at investigating government responses to public suggestions regarding public policies to determine the causes of miscommunication between the government and citizens. Critical (or crucial) case sampling was performed to select 23 cases in which the government rejected public suggestions. The policy argument model proposed by William N. Dunn served as the framework for this study. Content and textual analyses were conducted to deconstruct and reconstruct the government’s responses, thus identifying the rationales for the responses. This study found that “argumentation from motivation” or “argumentation from authority” are the government’s typical rationale for rejecting public suggestions, and that if the government justifies its rejection solely on legal grounds, then it tends to demand law-abidance alone, rather than addressing possible obstacles, thus causing goal displacement and responding to citizens in an unconvincing manner. On the basis of the findings, this study recommends that the government should properly manage their responses to public opinions voiced on the Public Policy Network Participation Platform, and the competent authorities should provide the basis for or purposes of relevant laws or policies to justify their rejection. Moreover, the National Development Council should continue to survey public satisfaction with government responses on this platform, develop a knowledge management mechanism, and frame guidelines on online policy communication.