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Citizen Attributions of Blame in Third‐Party Governance
Author(s) -
Marvel John D.,
Girth Amanda M.
Publication year - 2015
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/puar.12474
Subject(s) - blame , accountability , attribution , politics , public relations , agency (philosophy) , corporate governance , service provider , affect (linguistics) , business , government (linguistics) , perception , service delivery framework , public administration , service (business) , political science , social psychology , marketing , sociology , psychology , law , social science , linguistics , philosophy , communication , finance , neuroscience
The authors use a survey experiment to examine how structural differences in governance arrangements affect citizens’ notions of who is culpable for poor service quality. More specifically, two questions are investigated: (1) When things go wrong, do citizens attribute more blame to political actors if the provider of government services is a public agency or a private contractor? (2) Does the length of the accountability chain linking political actors to service providers influence citizens’ attributions of blame? The authors hypothesize that provider sector and accountability chain length affect citizens’ perceptions of political actors’ control over service delivery, which, in turn, inform citizens’ attributions of blame. Mixed support is found for this theory .