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Government policy performance and central–local political trust in China

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 August 2022

Yida Zhai Open the ORCID record for Yida Zhai [Opens in a new window]
Yida Zhai*
Affiliation:
School of International and Public Affairs, Xin Jian Building, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 1954 Huashan Road, Shanghai 200030, People’s Republic of China
*
E-mail: yidazhai@hotmail.com
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Abstract

It is widely acknowledged that poor government policy performance undermines public trust in government. However, there has been insufficient study of how citizens attribute responsibility to different levels of government within an authoritarian unitary context. Inquiry is needed to assess the ways government performance in various policy domains affects central–local political trust. This study uses the case of China to addresses these questions. Results show that, in particular, local governments risk losing public trust for corruption. Nevertheless, the central government loses public trust due to unsatisfying economies. Both local and central governments lose public trust for poor performance regarding environmental protection, food safety problems, public health, and primary/middle school education. The central government cannot always avoid blame, depending on different policy issues. The results indicate that the perceived administrative responsibility of different levels of government affects citizens’ evaluations of the performance of the central and local governments as well as their political trust.

Keywords

central–local relationsfood safety problemshierarchical trustpolitical corruptionpolitical trust
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Public Policy , Volume 42 , Issue 4 , December 2022 , pp. 782 - 801
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press

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