The impact of bureaucratic openness on public trust in South Korea

Bibliographic Data

ID6254504
AuthorsJeeyang Rhee Baum (John F. Kennedy University, corresponding author)
Year2009
Volume16
Issue5
Pages969-997
Publication date2009-10-01
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueDemocratization (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1351-0347 • E-ISSN: 1743-890X
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/13510340903162135
OpenAlexW2093175077
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited9

In this study, I assess whether administrative procedural openness, via administrative procedure acts (APAs) enhances public confidence in the civil service. I argue that APAs increase governmental transparency, predictability and accountability. Consequently, APAs ought to enhance public confidence in a country's democratic institutions, ceteris paribus. To substantiate this prediction, I investigate trends, pre- and post-APA passage, in the attitudes of Korean citizens regarding their country's democracy in general and civil service in particular (as well as with a second, brief case study of Taiwan). The evidence supports my argument both cross-sectionally and over time, suggesting that passage of Korea's APA laws in the mid-1990s did enhance the Koreans’ confidence in their country's civil service. Attitudes toward the bureaucracy, in turn, are powerful predictors of satisfaction with Korea's democracy, measured both absolutely and relative to attitudes toward the state of the nation 10 years prior. Several key findings replicate for Taiwan

Accountability · Argument (complex analysis · Bureaucracy · Ceteris paribus · Democracy · Economics · Openness to experience · Political science · Politics · Transparency (behavior · Electoral Systems and Political Participation · Judicial and Constitutional Studies · Law · Medicine · Psychology · Public Administration · Public Policy and Administration Research · Social Psychology

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