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Political trust and government performance in the time of COVID-19

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  • Ji, Chengyuan
  • Jiang, Junyan
  • Zhang, Yujin

Abstract

Governments around the world have exhibited markedly different levels of effectiveness in handling the COVID-19 pandemic, and these variations have not been adequately explained by conventional correlates of good governance. This paper advances a co-production perspective, arguing that citizens’ predisposition to support and comply with government policies has played a crucial role in shaping countries’ pandemic performance. Analyzing a cross-country dataset that combines COVID-related cases and deaths with a new measure of political trust constructed from multiple international surveys, we show that the numbers of casualties from the pandemic are significantly lower in societies where citizens have greater trust in their governments. This relationship continues to hold even when we focus only on wealthy, democratic countries where the data quality is more reliable. Additional analyses suggest that higher political trust contributes to both greater compliance with mitigation measures by citizens and more decisive response by government. These findings underscore the importance of citizen—government collaboration for effective governance and the perils of declining political trust in advanced democracies.

Suggested Citation

  • Ji, Chengyuan & Jiang, Junyan & Zhang, Yujin, 2024. "Political trust and government performance in the time of COVID-19," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 176(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:176:y:2024:i:c:s0305750x23003170
    DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2023.106499
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