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The Importance of Trust in Government for Public Administration: The Case of Zoning
Author(s) -
Cooper Christopher A.,
Knotts H. Gibbs,
Brennan Kathleen M.
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
public administration review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.721
H-Index - 139
eISSN - 1540-6210
pISSN - 0033-3352
DOI - 10.1111/j.1540-6210.2008.00882.x
Subject(s) - public trust , politics , accountability , public administration , competence (human resources) , bureaucracy , zoning , blind trust , local government , state (computer science) , public relations , discretion , government (linguistics) , power (physics) , political science , law , economics , management , linguistics , philosophy , physics , algorithm , quantum mechanics , computer science
Many scholars argue that citizens with higher levels of political trust are more likely to grant bureaucratic discretion to public administrators than citizens with lower levels of trust. Trust, therefore, can relieve the tension between managerial flexibility and political accountability in the modern administrative state. Unfortunately, there is little empirical evidence showing that trust is actually associated with citizens’ willingness to cede policy‐making power to government. This article tests theories about political trust and citizen competence using the case of zoning. Trust in local government is found to be an important predictor of support for zoning, but trust in state government and trust in national government have no effect. These findings suggest that trust affects policy choice and helps determine how much power citizens grant to local administrators.