This dissertation examines the definition of conceptualize and the influential factors of trust in government on the empirical basis, and the indication of improvement scheme on this study. In order to do this, concept and theory about trust in govern...
This dissertation examines the definition of conceptualize and the influential factors of trust in government on the empirical basis, and the indication of improvement scheme on this study. In order to do this, concept and theory about trust in government were organized based on theoretical and empirical discussions of trust studies done in diverse school systems, and based on the theoretical and logical inferences, hypothesis of variables that affect ‘trust in government’ were established. In order to examine effects of ‘authoritarian power’ and ‘participation in policy-making process’ among influential factors of trust in government, this study limited its range to the doctors and pharmacists of the Ministry of Health & Welfare. To test hypothesis that derived from these processes, lists of questionnaire were distributed to 2,500 doctors and pharmacists. Out of 778 responses which counts 33.1% of 2,500 doctors and pharmacists, 761 responses were analyzed based on structural equation.
The followings are the results.
In the beginning, this study defined trust in government as ‘people's positive expectations of general and specialized role performance by the government.’ As defined in this research, 16 measuring questions were designed, and through the standard questions(How much do you trust the Ministry of Health & Welfare?) and validity testing, 6 questions were established as measuring questions of trust in government. Between the standard question which measured trust in government and 6 measuring questions showed 1) close correlation to each other(0.840), 2) after having those questions being analyzed by structural equation, their results brought similarities. This result indicates that 6 measuring questions for trust in government have certain validities.
The followings are the results of influential factors.
First of all, trust in government becomes influenced by many factors. According to the research, variable factors such as knowledge factors (ability, integrity, and benevolence of public service officers), relational factors (authoritarian power), institutional factors (participation in policy-making process, external efficacy related to operation of participation), and propensity to trust regarding influences to trust in government. In relation to effectiveness of trust in government, 1) doctors and pharmacists indicated that external efficacy related to operation of participation is the variable that shows the biggest effects. 2) The second most effective variable is ‘authoritarian power’ for doctors and ‘individual participation led by government.’ 3) The third effective variable is shown to be ability of public service officer. However, doctors only indicated that integrity affects trust in government, and pharmacists indicated that benevolence affects trust in government. On the other hand, the reason why ability, integrity, and benevolence of public service officers have great potential functions of variables is that these variables work as mediation parameters between trust in government and other causing factors.
Second, authoritarian power(the understanding by civilians about how much the government uses its authoritarian power) directly influence the participation in policy-making process, and this is the result of empirical proof of existing theoretical discussion about ‘power’ and ‘participation.’ As the government uses its power as authoritarianism, both doctors and pharmacists show tendency to countermove by using compulsive power of nongovernmental such as organization’s demonstration and assembly. However, doctors and pharmacists show different reactions. When doctors recognize the government uses its authoritarian power, they showed tendency not to attend public hearings nor support survey, while pharmacists increase the participation of the government initiative. This phenomenon indicates that doctors counter-react with oppressive and professional force while pharmacists counter-react with oppressive and legal force against government when government uses it authoritarian power.
Third, participation in policy-making process affects trust in government through mediate variables. So far, the studies about ‘Participation’ and ‘trust in government’ indicated that participation was considered to directly affect trust in government, and the result from this study was ambiguous. The purpose of this study is to indicate the absence of existence of the mediation parameters as the causing factors of previously results. As the result of analysis, ‘External efficacy Related to Operation of Participation’ corresponds as parameters.
The followings are the discussion of improvement scheme based on this study.
First of all, to enhance the trust in government, the most direct and effective solution to enhance the trust in government is to vividly activate the elements of concepts of trust in government. At this point of view, ‘General Role’ for government to actualize public interests and ‘Specialized Role’ which specialized organization expects from government the core solution for government to perform at the same time in order to enhanced trust in government. In addition, it is important that the government adhere to ‘justice’, ‘equity’, ‘efficiency’, ‘legitimacy’, ‘efficiency’, and ‘answer to the specialized expectations’ while performing general and specialized role. The reason why is because these principles act as standard of judgment for people to estimate trust in government.
Second, government needs to find out in advance exactly what people and members of specialized organization want in order to well-performed in general and specialized role. Although there may be quite different ways in order for government to do this, government’s expansion of ‘participation in policy- making process’ and well managing of participating process may be the most suitable solution. In other words, government needs to find out exactly what people and member of specialized organizations expect from government through public hearing or informal gathering for discussion or reflecting opinions thorough active survey may be the best solution. As External efficacy(operate) intermediates effectiveness of participation, in addition to expansion and making full use of ‘participation in policy- making process’, government needs to obtain wide range of information from members of specialized organizations and reflect their opinions to policy, and try to operate participation in policy-making process effectively in order to improve trust in government.
Third, government can improve trust in government by reducing the ideas of people's thinking that government uses their authoritarian power. The people's view on government may seem like government makes policies without any consideration of people or may even seem like government positions itself above people. This understanding from people may become a serious matter when it brings up negative result on trust in government. Government needs to carefully use their authority in order not to seem as if they are using authoritarian power, and in order to do this, applying ‘Participation of the Government initiative’ may be a solution. According to the result of this study, while negative effects of ‘authoritarian power’ about trust in government increases, positive effects of ‘Participation of the Government initiative’ decreases and vice versa.
In conclusion, the most important thing in improving trust in government, governments’ accomplishing general and specialized roles which people and member of specialized organizations expect from government. In addition, government needs to expand ‘participation in policy-making process’ operating participation in democratic and effective way in order to reflect people’s expectations from government. On the one hand, as practical operations of participations are led by public service officers, promoting abilities of public service officers to operate ‘participation in policy-making process’ in democratic and effective way may be an alternative plan to increase trust in government.
Key word : Trust in Government, participation in policy-making process, authoritarian power, the Ministry of Health & Welfare, doctors, pharmacists