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

    Authors

    X. H. Wang;M. Van Wart

    Comments

    Authors: contact us about adding a copy of your work at STARS@ucf.edu

    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

    Share

    COinS