Theorising unconscious participation: the case of China

Digital technologies have transformed the nature of political participation. Existing theories, largely developed within Western political science, conceptualise participation as a manifest and conscious form of behaviour aimed at influencing government decision-making. Drawing on China’s rapidly expanding digital governance practices, this article identifies and theorises a new phenomenon: ‘unconscious participation’. In this model, citizens do not consciously engage in politics; instead, their everyday digital traces are collected, analysed and incorporated into policy processes through algorithmic systems and online platforms. Integrating China’s empirical experience with Western theories of political participation, this article conceptualises unconscious participation as a form of participation without awareness. It refers to the unconscious involvement of netizens whose everyday digital traces are technologically mediated, aggregated and continuously analysed by algorithmic systems, enabling decentralised yet opaque policymaking processes in which political influence is exercised indirectly through data rather than deliberate action.