公共服务、政府透明度与公众对政府的信任：影响机理与经验证据

公众对政府的信任关系到政府合法性、社会稳定性和法制有效性。近年来,很多国家面临公众信任政府程度日益下降的窘境。为了改变这种局面,一些国家意图通过建设电子政务来改善公共服务、提高政府透明度,进而增强公众对政府的信任。然而,这种举措可以提高公众对政府的信任吗?本文首先剖析公共服务、政府透明度影响公众信任政府程度的机理,然后根据中国2010年300个地级市电子政务评估数据,采取结构方程模型进行检验。结果发现,公众对政府的信任与公共服务正相关,公共服务越好,公众越信任政府;公众对政府的信任与政府透明度正相关,政府透明度越高,公众越信任政府。研究还发现,公共服务还通过影响政府透明度而间接影响公众对政府的信任。本研究对公共管理改革具有一定的应用参考价值。

Public Service,Government Transparency and Public Trust in Government:Mechanism and Evidence

Public trust in government is very important to government legitimacy,social stability and effect enforcement of law.Recently,there is a dilemma of declining trust in government in many countries.Aiming to improve public trust in govern ment,many countries construct E-government in order to improve public service and enhance government transparency.How ever,can this initiative improve public trust in government?This paper explores the mechanism of influence of public services and government transparency on public trust in government,and then tests the influence mechanism using the data of 300 city government websites performance evaluation through structural equation model.The results show that trust in government is positively associated with public service,that is to say,better public service can result in higher trust in government,and trust in government is positively related to government transparency,higher government transparency can result in higher trust in government.This study also finds that public service can exert an indirect influence on public trust in government through government transparency.This study has certain reference value for reform of public administration.