Confidence In Local Government Research Articles

Jacks of all trades, masters of none? Multiple-mandate holding and trust in local government

ABSTRACT Multiple-mandate holding, i.e., the holding of more than one directly elected mandate simultaneously on different government tiers, is a controversial practice with potential consequences on political trust. The research purpose of this study is thus to contribute to this line of research by exploring how the extent of this practice at the local level reflects on the opinions of ordinary citizens and their confidence in local government. The aim of this paper is therefore to examine this question utilising a vignette survey experiment carried out in Finland. The findings presented contribute to shining a light on the potential consequences of this practice for trust in the local government by exposing one way in which negative evaluations of politicians are formed.

After the rain falls: A panel survey of disaster‐related attitudes and behaviors

In this study, we take advantage of a temporarily unique panel survey to examine how Hurricane Harvey shifted individual perceptions of coastal resilience in two coastal shoreline counties (Galveston and Brazoria) directly affected by the storm. We find that, in the aftermath of the hurricane, individuals recognized they were less prepared and that recovery would take longer than expected. At the same time, social trust increased as did confidence in local government and support for increasing building standards and restricting new building structures and housing in high risk areas. We find no change in support for increased taxes or financial incentives to relocate. These shifts in attitudes were largely offset by reported hurricane damage, meaning individuals who reported experiencing the most damage became less trusting, expressed less confidence in local organizations, and were less supportive of resilience building policies. As the scope and scale of disaster-associated damages increase along with the frequency and severity of disasters, these findings can provide important insight to emergency preparedness planners and policy makers as they develop strategies to increase resilience, particularly in repetitive loss areas like the Texas Gulf Coast.

Whether to Trust Local Government? : From the Good Governance Perspectives

The public's impression of the overall government structure is greatly influenced by the performance of the local governments. As indicated by Public Complaint Bureau statistics, the operational responsibilities that these local authorities are expected to depict have to some extent fallen short of the public expectations. This could have a negative impact on the public's confidence in their local government. As a result, this study aims to investigate the factors associated to public trust in local government. Purposive sampling was used in this quantitative study, which included 120 Kuantan residents as respondents. As a part of this study, the data was analysed using SPSS 24. Transparency, accountability, and responsiveness were found to be strongly connected with public trust in Kuantan City Council. This study adds to the body of knowledge about the components of good governance and the effect they have on public confidence in local government. It is intended that this study would help the local government in Pahang establish a sound public policy and programme in order to increase the public trust.

Citizens’ Perception of Corruption and Transparency as Determinants of Public Trust in Local Government in Ukraine

Trust in government plays an essential role in ensuring the legitimacy and resilience of a country’s political system. The aim of this study is to examine the perceived levels of corruption and transparency as factors influencing trust in local government, as well as the relationships between them, by obtaining a statistical generalisation of the respondents’ (n=403) attitudes and opinions towards the local government of one of the recently formed amalgamated territorial communities in Ukraine. The regression-based bootstrapping approach was applied to test the conceptual model and hypotheses using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) 25.0 software. The results of the study demonstrate the complex nature of the relationship between the variables and highlight some important issues regarding the perception of transparency, the role it plays in curbing corruption and improving public confidence in local government, which provides a basis for further systematic research on this topic.

Perceived police performance, racial experiences, and trust in local government

ABSTRACT Given the continued revelation of police abuses of racial-ethnic minorities in America, it is of the utmost importance for scholars to focus on questions of how police conduct is related to minority political behavior, in particular their trust in local government. In this paper, we find evidence that both egotropic and sociotropic insecurity and experiences with police have a significant correlation with confidence in local government. The effects of both victimization and negative interactions with police have a substantive association with the ways that communities of color perceive their local government. Combining data from the 2016 Collaborative Multiracial Post-Election Survey (CMPS) and contextual data from the U.S. Census Bureau, FBI crime statistics, and “Mapping Police Violence” project, we use maximum likelihood to examine how police conduct, personal experiences with the police, and neighborhood conditions correlate with individuals' trust in local government.

Creating a virtuous cycle for increased trust in local government

After the advent of the first free and fair elections in South Africa in 1994, access to municipal services became a right for all residents. Now, more than ever, the inclusion of previously disadvantaged communities is being intensified. However, the delivery of services often remains inadequate, eliciting increasing protests throughout the country. Protests, which are often the last resort by communities, are indicative of declining levels of trust in local government. It becomes problematic when trust in communication channels and public participation strategies is limited, co-production of services is impeded and the possibility of increasing such trust is, in turn, negatively affected. This study used a mixed-methods approach including both quantitative and qualitative research techniques to validate the posed research questions and authenticate the presented problem statement. The triangulation approach allowed for effectively engaging the strengths of both research methodologies. The findings of the study revealed that as a result of communities’ increasing lack of trust and confidence in local government, service delivery protests are increasing. The study further indicated that communities in the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality (NMBM) are generally not well informed about the development plans of the municipality and do not adequately participate in local government activities. The study provides recommendations to augment trust in local government communication channels to improve public participation that could lead to the co-production of services. In this way, the study asserts that trust can be enhanced in what amounts to a virtuous cycle.

Tendencies of Residents in Sanjiangyuan National Park to the Optimization of Livelihoods and Conservation of the Natural Reserves

Current research on residents’ ecological protection behaviors commonly adopts the socio-economic approach at the individual level. Yet, such an approach might ignore the impacts of potential psychological factors on resident behaviors, such as on farmers’ willingness and perception to conservation (collectively defined as residents’ tendencies in this study). This research analyzed the factors influencing residents’ preferences for conservation and livelihood trade-off at the community level in Sanjiangyuan National Park, China. We conclude: First, the factors associated with government funding lead to residents’ inclination to trust local government. Subsequently, abundant wealth contributes to the open-mindedness of residents to accept that “changes” are worthy. Second, despite the limited level of education, the fact that residents do not consider terms and conditions of regulations does not hinder recent social and ecological transformation. Third, residents’ comparative support for policies and regulations are commonly related to their interests in livelihood and ecological protection, but the support levels differ among different counties due to geographical and social heterogeneities. Collectively, policymakers should realize the importance of residents’ tendencies as well as their confidence in local government when planning to optimize social ecological transformation policies with a balance between the compensations given and benefits received.

Factors that Influence the Megaprojects in Iraq

Megaprojects are classified within large investment projects which have a long term impact on the economy, the environment, and the society. Megaprojects are huge development projects such as railways, motorways, dams, power plants, airports and processing projects.Numbers of megaprojects have been constructed and some of them are in the construction process or in the planning level, therefore, this research focused on these megaprojects to investigate the factors that could influence them in Iraq. Accordingly, the practical study consisted of quality data collections through interviews and quantitative data collections through questionnaire. The interviews have been done with six (6) experts in privet companies. The questionnaire survey has been conducted in government institutes. 85 questionnaire forms have been distributed; only 81 forms are collected.The results of this research project revealed that less than half of the Megaprojects in Iraq are unsuccessful. However, there are numbers of reasons which may causing the failure in projects, such as insufficient and weaknesses in financial, quality and management abilities. Accordingly, there are some factors that influence the success of the megaproject in Iraq, such as increasing the confidence in local government, clarity of project vision and goal and compatibility with the long-term government plan.

Satisfaction from the Actions of the Local Governments

In the article two main issues are depicted: the evaluation of activities of voyts, mayors and also the evaluation of local government activities. In a research conducted from the end of 2018 until the beginning of 2019 we decided to verify 3 hypotheses. First one was: confidence towards the local government results from positive evaluations of voyts and mayors activities. The results were compared with the data from previous research. The second hypothesis assumes, that positive evaluation of local government activities is not connected to the activities of single executive body, but is connected to how the whole system of local government works. Third one, however, assumes that local government on the level of voivodeship is rated lower than city (commune) government. Relatively high level of satisfaction about the activities of voyts and mayors, that were recorded in 2012 research not only remained but even increased. This is the factor that strengthens confidence in local government and favors their positive evaluation. Also voivodeship governments are positively evaluated by the surveyed, however, the level of satisfaction is lower than those of other local authorities.

The influence of “dark networks” on citizens’ confidence in democratic institutions in Mexico

The Americas have the highest homicide rate of any region in the world, with adherence to rule of law being a major concern in “third-wave” democracies. Given the surge in violence in Mexico in the years after the country ended one-party rule, we utilize the country case to conceptually and empirically test the influence of violence and corruption as proxies for “dark networks” – covert actors working outside of the law – on citizens’ confidence in democracy and democratic institutions. In a largely empirically unexplored area, we operationalize the concept of dark networks and study the impact on citizens over critical junctures of three Mexican presidencies. Utilizing representative survey data, we analyze the impact of dark networks (homicides and direct knowledge of corrupt acts) on satisfaction with democracy and confidence in democratic institutions. Experience with corrupt acts had a significantly negative influence on satisfaction with democracy and confidence in democratic institutions and local government. Homicides had a significant yet only slightly positive influence on satisfaction with democracy and confidence in local government. Right-leaning ideology had a significant yet only weak positive influence on satisfaction with democracy and on confidence in institutions.

Understanding Participant Representativeness in Deliberative Events: A Case Study Comparing Probability and Non-Probability Recruitment Strategies

Deliberative event participants often differ in meaningful ways from the population they are intended to represent; however, less is known about whether various recruitment methods influence participant representativeness. Furthermore, a better understanding of where in the recruitment process lack of representation occurs is needed. We present a framework for understanding why event attendees might not represent the target population and then compare two different recruitment strategies using this framework. Specifically, we consider a Deliberative Poll that used a random-digit-dial telephone recruitment survey and a deliberative event that used a convenience sample web recruitment survey. For two stages in the recruitment process, we calculate nonresponse errors for statistics assessing demographic characteristics and confidence in local government. Notably, both recruitment methods resulted in event attendees that were older and better educated than the population they were intended to represent providing evidence that probability recruitment methods do not necessarily outperform nonprobability methods. Additionally, we demonstrate that aspects of the recruitment process other than the recruitment survey sampling method used can influence participant representativeneess. We conclude by discussing adjustments to the recruitment process that might improve the representativeness of event attendees.

Public confidence and public services: it matters what you measure

Governments around the world are concerned about declining public confidence in democratic institutions. It has been widely assumed that improving the performance of public services will help address this problem. Policy makers in the United Kingdom (UK) have therefore been puzzled to discover that public confidence in local government continued to decline at a time when local services seemed to be improving. The reason for this apparent paradox is that public confidence is influenced by a wide array of factors only some of which are captured by official measures. Since different data can lead to quite different conclusions, it matters what is measured.

The Effects of Confidence in Government and Information on Perceived and Actual Preparedness for Disasters

This research examines perceived and actual preparedness for two types of natural hazard risks: earthquakes in the Los Angeles County area and hurricanes within the New Orleans metropolitan area. Using data collected from a sample of households in these regions, the influence of individuals' confidence in local government to manage a disaster and exposure to disaster preparedness information sources were tested as explanations for levels of perceived and actual preparedness. Regression analyses show that a high level of confidence in local government to manage a disaster and exposure to more preparedness information sources were associated with a higher level of perceived preparedness. No support for a potential dampening effect of confidence in local government on household preparedness actions was found. The results also reveal only limited support for the impact of information exposure on actual preparedness. The results for actual preparedness vary between the study areas; therefore, we follow the analysis with a discussion of these differences and the implications drawn from the research.

Public Opinion and American Federalism: Perspectives on Taxes, Spending, and Trust--An ACIR Update

The research reported here updates for 1999 some public opinion data previously provided by the U.S. Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations. The 1999 survey results indicate a general continuation of opinion trends established by the late 1970s to the mid-1980s. Local government is viewed as giving citizens the mostfor their money, followed by state government and thefederal government. Americans still regard thefederal income tax as the worst tax, followed by the local property tax. Likewise, Americans express the most trust and confidence in local government and the least trust and confidence in the federal government, although confidence in all governments increased over comparable data for 1992. Race and party identification and, in one case, region are significant factors differentiating opinions about the federal, state, and local governments and their taxes.