The impact of bureaucratic openness on public trust in South Korea |
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Authors: | Jeeyang Rhee Baum |
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Institution: | 1. Ash Institute for Democratic Governance and Innovation, John F. Kennedy School of Government , Harvard University , Cambridge , USA Jeeyang_Rhee_Baum@hks.harvard.edu |
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Abstract: | In this study, I assess whether administrative procedural openness, via administrative procedure acts (APAs) enhances public confidence in the civil service. I argue that APAs increase governmental transparency, predictability and accountability. Consequently, APAs ought to enhance public confidence in a country's democratic institutions, ceteris paribus. To substantiate this prediction, I investigate trends, pre- and post-APA passage, in the attitudes of Korean citizens regarding their country's democracy in general and civil service in particular (as well as with a second, brief case study of Taiwan). The evidence supports my argument both cross-sectionally and over time, suggesting that passage of Korea's APA laws in the mid-1990s did enhance the Koreans’ confidence in their country's civil service. Attitudes toward the bureaucracy, in turn, are powerful predictors of satisfaction with Korea's democracy, measured both absolutely and relative to attitudes toward the state of the nation 10 years prior. Several key findings replicate for Taiwan. |
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Keywords: | bureaucratic openness administrative procedure acts civil service South Korea Taiwan democracy |
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