Cai Qimeng
School of International Relations and Public Affairs, Fudan University, China.
Int Rev Adm Sci. 2023 Mar 22:00208523231161297. doi: 10.1177/00208523231161297.
It is important to understand the public's trust in the government's ability to handle crisis events. Based on China Family Panel Studies data in 2018 and 2020, this paper explores the interaction between government trust and life satisfaction during the pandemic. It is found that with the increase in public trust in government officials, individual life satisfaction has been significantly improved. The main mechanism is that government trust enhances people's confidence in the future and promotes the government's investment in the livelihood fields. However, during the COVID-19 pandemic, individual life satisfaction suffered a negative impact. Individuals with high trust in the government before the pandemic had a small decrease in life satisfaction. At the same time, when faced with the pandemic, individuals were more willing to trust the government due to the desire to overcome common threats, which will alleviate the negative impact of the pandemic on individual life satisfaction. The research reported in this paper helps to explain the role of government in the crisis period from the perspective of public trust and provides useful information for the government to formulate and adjust policies to mitigate the impact of the crisis events. In China, trust in local governments is related to public satisfaction.People are more willing to increase trust in the government to overcome a common crisis, thus reducing the negative impact of the crisis on individual life satisfaction.Perhaps more important is to promote the public service motivation of government officials through government trust.Providing public services, increasing accountability and transparency in society, and increasing citizen engagement are all effective ways to foster institutional trust.
了解公众对政府处理危机事件能力的信任至关重要。基于2018年和2020年中国家庭追踪调查数据，本文探讨了疫情期间政府信任与生活满意度之间的相互作用。研究发现，随着公众对政府官员信任度的提高，个人生活满意度得到显著提升。主要机制是政府信任增强了人们对未来的信心，并促进了政府在民生领域的投入。然而，在新冠疫情期间，个人生活满意度受到了负面影响。疫情前对政府信任度高的个人生活满意度略有下降。同时，面对疫情时，由于想要克服共同威胁，个人更愿意信任政府，这将减轻疫情对个人生活满意度的负面影响。本文所报告的研究有助于从公众信任的角度解释政府在危机时期的作用，并为政府制定和调整政策以减轻危机事件的影响提供有用信息。在中国，对地方政府的信任与公众满意度相关。人们更愿意增加对政府的信任以克服共同危机，从而减少危机对个人生活满意度的负面影响。或许更重要的是通过政府信任来提升政府官员的公共服务动机。提供公共服务、增强社会问责制和透明度以及增加公民参与都是培养制度信任的有效方式。
