Consensus vs divide: perceptions of digital governance between elites and mass

Scholars widely regard digital governance as a path to good governance in China. However, the perception gap between political elites and mass in China has not yet been systematically explored. Based on a large-scale online national survey (N = 3,822), this study divides perceptions of digital governance into preference and satisfaction and applies an individual-contextual model to explain the perception gap. The findings reveal that there is consensus between political elites and mass in their preferences, but a significant divide exists in their satisfaction, with elites reporting higher satisfaction. Individual factors significantly shape both preference and satisfaction. There are heterogeneous effects in key individual factors and contextual factors. Low-income political elites report the highest level of satisfaction with digital governance among other subgroups. In cities where the digital governance system is more well-developed, the satisfaction gap is the narrowest, because elite satisfaction decreases more sharply during the process of constructing the digital governance system. By contrast, in cities with higher-quality digital governance services, the satisfaction gap widens—driven by the faster increase in elite satisfaction. These findings provide new insights into the perception gap between elites and mass, with important implications for the legitimacy of digital governance in China.