What Makes Citizens Satisfied? The Influence of Perceived Responsiveness of Local Administration on Satisfaction with Public Administration
PDF

Keywords

Public Administration
Satisfaction
Responsiveness.

How to Cite

RÖLLE, D. (2017). What Makes Citizens Satisfied? The Influence of Perceived Responsiveness of Local Administration on Satisfaction with Public Administration. Journal of Social and Administrative Sciences, 4(1), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1453/jsas.v4i1.1219

Abstract

Abstract. There is no other institution that people regularly have so much direct contact with as public administration, although people have different experiences with public administration. Some citizens feel comfortable when making contact with bureaucracy; some have rather negative feelings. Besides the factors ‘trust’ and ‘satisfaction’ with public administration, there might be one other relevant factor: ‘responsiveness’. Based on representative population surveys, this paper can show that the perception of administration as responsive is directly related to the user’s satisfaction with it, and that the main factor explaining perceived satisfaction with public administration is the reputation of the local public administration.

Keywords. Public administration, Satisfaction, Responsiveness, Reputation.

JEL. H83, H76, C12.
https://doi.org/10.1453/jsas.v4i1.1219
PDF

References

Almond, G.A. & Verba, S. (1963). The Civic Culture. Political Attitudes and Democracy in Five Nations, Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Behnke, N. (2009). Responsivität und Verantwortlichkeit der öffentlichen verwaltung. In E. Czerwick, W.H. Lorig, & E. Treutner (Eds.), Die öffentliche Verwaltung in der Demokratie der Bundesrepublik Deutschland (pp.45-64). Wiesbaden: VS Verlag. doi. 10.1007/978-3-531-92115-0_3

Blake, R.R. & Mouton, J.S. (1964). The Managerial Grid. Houston/Texas: Gulf Publishing Company.

Derlien, H.-U., & Löwenhaupt, S. (1997). Verwaltungskontakte und institutionenvertrauen. In H. Wollmann, H.-D. Derlien, K. König, W. Renzsch, & W. Seibel (Eds.), Transformation der Politisch-Administrativen Strukturen in Ostdeutschland, (pp.417-472). Opladen: Westdeutscher Verlag.

Diamond, L., & Morlino, L. (2005). Assessing the Quality of Democracy. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. doi. 10.1007/978-3-322-95838-9_9

Downs, A. (1967). Inside Bureaucracy. Boston: Little, Brown and Company.

Eulau, H., & Karps, P.D. (1978). The puzzle of representation: Specifying components of responsiveness. In H. Elau, & J.C. Wahlke (Eds.), The Politics of Representation: Continuities in Theory and Research (pp. 233-254). Beverly Hills: Sage Publications.

Feick, J., & Mayntz, R. (1982). Bürger im bürokratischen Staat: Repräsentative beurteilungen und handlungseinschätzungen. Die Verwaltung, 15, 409-434.

Giesen-Winkler, U., Margies, B., & Fisch, R. (2011). Integration externen wissens bei der einführung einer verständlichen verwaltungssprache. In R. Schauer, N. Thom, N., & D. Hilgers (Eds.), Innovative Verwaltungen. Innovationsmanagement als Instrument von Verwaltungsreformen (pp.177-190). Linz: Trauner Verlag.

Grunow, D., & Strüngmann, D. (2008). Bürokratiekritik in der öffentlichen meinung: Impulse für verwaltungsreformen. Der Moderne Staat, 1, 121-140.

Hadley, R., & Young, K. (1990). Creating a Responsive Public Service. New York: Harvester Wheatsheaf.

Hirschman, A.O. (1970). Exit, voice and loyalty. Responses to decline in firms, organizations, and states. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.

Miller, W.E., & Stokes, D.E. (1963). Constituency influence in congress. American Political Science Review, 57, 45-56. doi. 10.2307/1952717

McCubbins, M.D., Noll, R.G. & Weingast, B.R. (1989). Structure and process, politics and policy: Administrative arrangements and the political control of agencies, Virginia Law Review, 75(2), 431-482.

Niskanen, W.A. (1971). Bureaucracy and Representative Government, Chicago: Aldine-Atherton.

Powell, G.B. (2004). The chain of responsiveness. Journal of Democracy, 15, 91–105. doi. 10.1353/jod.2004.0070

Putnam, R.D. (1994). Making Democracy Work. Civic Traditions in Modern Italy. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Rourke, F.E. (1992). Responsiveness and neutral competence in American bureaucracy. Public Administration Review, 52, 539-546. doi. 10.2307/977164

Rölle, D. (2010). Schalterdistanz oder bürokratische Kompetenz? Responsivität der öffentlichen Verwaltung in Deutschland. In H. Hill, (Ed.), Verwaltungsmodernisierung (pp. 129-148). Baden-Baden: Nomos-Verlag.

Saltzstein, G.H. (1985). Conceptualizing bureaucratic responsiveness. Administration and Society, 17(3), 283-306. doi. 10.1177/009539978501700303

Saltzstein, G.H. (1992). Bureaucratic responsiveness: Conceptual issues and cultural research. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 2(1), 63-88. doi. 10.1093/oxfordjournals.jpart.a037112

Stewart, J., & Ranson, S. (1994). Management in the public domain. In D. McKevitt & A. Lawton (Eds.), Public Sector Management. Theory, Critique & Practice (pp. 54-70). London: Sage.

Steiss, A.W., & Daneke, G.A. (1980). Performance Administration. Improved Responsiveness and Effectiveness in Public Service. Lexington, Mass.: Lexington Books.

Stivers, C. (2001). The listening bureaucrat: Responsiveness in public administration. In C. Stivers (Ed.), Democracy, Bureaucracy, and the Study of Administration (pp. 364-369). Boulder: Westview Press.

Thomas, J.C. (2013). Citizen, customer, partner: Rethinking the place of the public in public management. Public Administration Review, 73(69, 786-796. doi. 10.1111/puar.12109

Vigoda, E. (2000). Are you being served? The responsiveness of public administration to citizens’ demands: An empirical examination in Israel. Public Administration, 78(1), 165-191. dio. 10.1111/1467-9299.00198

Vigoda, E. (2002). From responsiveness to collaboration: Governance, citizens, and the next generation of public administration, Public Administration Review, 78(1), 515-528. doi. 10.1111/1540-6210.00235

Wilson, J.Q. (1967). The bureaucratic problem. The Public Interest, 1, 3-9.

Wood, B.D. (1988). Principals, bureaucrats, and responsiveness in clear air enforcements. American Political Science Review, 82(1), 213-234. doi. 10.2307/1958066

Creative Commons License
This article licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial license (4.0)

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.