Title

When public participation in administration leads to trust: An empirical assessment of managers' perceptions

Authors

Authors

X. H. Wang;M. Van Wart

Comments

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Abbreviated Journal Title

Public Adm. Rev.

Keywords

CITIZEN PARTICIPATION; DECISION-MAKING; ETHICS; Public Administration

Abstract

This study empirically assesses the argument that public participation enhances public trust. A model was constructed to include five intermediate factors that might link participation and trust: consensus building, ethical behaviors, accountability practices, service competence, and managerial competence. As expected, participation does explain a significant amount of public trust. However, using path analysis, only two intermediate factors-ethical behaviors and service competence-were found to significantly contribute to trust. Even successful consensus-building activities are not likely to enhance trust unless administrative performance improves. These results indicate that if increasing public trust is the primary goal, then the primary focus should be on administrative integrity and performance results.

Journal Title

Public Administration Review

Volume

67

Issue/Number

2

Publication Date

1-1-2007

Document Type

Article

Language

English

First Page

265

Last Page

278

WOS Identifier

WOS:000245645600008

ISSN

0033-3352

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