Public Trust and Levels of Government in China:An Empirical Analysis
The publics trust in government, whether at national, regional of local levels, is always a topic that arouses interest and debate among researchers as well as politicians.In China, at least since the 1980s, a trust crisis has haunted many local governments, and done so at a time when trust in national-level government in the country has generally improved significantly.This article presents findings from the analysis of survey research in 2011 that provide the patterns of public trust in local government in China and on the key factors behind them.It finds a hierarchical pattern in which higher levels of trust among citizens associate with national government and higher levels of authority, while local government, with lesser powers and authority, suffers from higher levels of public distrust.This pattern applies equally in urban and rural areas, although trust levels among rural villagers are generally higher than those among city-dwellers.The article also presents the results of a regression analysis to investigate the factors influencing the government trust at local levels, identifying five key variables in particular: Positive outlook of particular governmental activities, government performance, levels of inter-personal trust between citizens, levels of corruption by public officials, and participation in political/governmental activities, although some differences in these respects are highlighted between rural and urban citizens.
Public trust Local government Trust pattern Transitional China
LIU Hua-xing John W Raine
University of Birmingham,U.K.,B15 2TT
国际会议
2013 International Conference on Public Administration (9th)(2013年第九届公共管理国际会议)
南非
英文
160-180
2013-10-31（万方平台首次上网日期，不代表论文的发表时间）