Do People Trust the Government More? Unpacking the Distinct Impacts of Anticorruption Policies on Political Trust

Bibliographic Data

ID6339201
AuthorsSiqin Kang (0000-0002-2773-4966, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong), Jiangnan Zhu (0000-0002-5981-6886, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong, corresponding author)
Year2021
Volume74
Issue2
Pages434-449
Publication date2021-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenuePolitical Research Quarterly (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1065-9129 • E-ISSN: 1938-274X
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/1065912920912016
OpenAlexW3012172828
LanguageEN
Citations received28
References cited63

Governments at times combat corruption intensively in an attempt to (re)gain political trust. While corruption crackdowns may demonstrate government resolve to fight corruption, the high-profile corruption uncovered may also shock the public. Therefore, how effective can anticorruption policies help boost political trust? We argue that anticorruption policies influence political trust through two channels: direct experience, that is, interactions with governmental bodies, and the media, that is, second-hand information culled from reporting on anticorruption. Differentiating between these two channels illustrates that anticorruption policies may have distinct effects on political trust for different social groups. We contextualize our theoretical framework with the latest anticorruption drive in China, combining longitudinal data from a national survey and field interviews and using difference-in-differences (DID) models. Our findings support our predictions. For state-system insiders (e.g., civil servants), increase of political trust is less pronounced than for outsiders because the former directly experience radical implementation processes and ineffective anticorruption outcomes. Similarly, political trust increases at a lower rate for groups with higher levels of education and greater access to information outside governmental propaganda than for their less-informed counterparts. Intensive anticorruption efforts are therefore more likely to increase political trust for the grassroots than for elites in China

Blind trust · China · Civil society · Government (linguistics · Grassroots · Language change · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Public relations · Public trust · Shock (circulatory · Sociology · State (computer science · Unpacking · Corruption and Economic Development · Law · Local Government Finance and Decentralization · Public Administration · Taxation and Compliance Studies

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