Past research has confirmed the importance of structural and individual-level factors in predicting voter turnout and citizen trust in the government. In international research particularly, political corruption has been shown to negatively affect citizen trust, though the effect of corruption on voter turnout is mixed. To date, no research has examined the effect of corruption on voting and government trust in the United States over a relatively long period of time. In this dissertation, I aim to answer two primary research questions: how U.S. corruption affects voting and how it affects citizen trust in the government. Using many sources of data for state-level variables, and the American National Election Study (NES) for individual-level variables, I investigate these relationships using multilevel modeling (MLM) of forty-six states and approximately 22,000 individuals in my analysis of voting and forty-one states and about 7,000 individuals in my analysis of political trust. I find that corruption has a small, but significant, negative effect on voting. Surprisingly, I find no effect of corruption on a citizen’s political trust, even after assessing the impact of corruption on four other specifications of trust. I also investigate cross-level interaction effects for each analysis, and find no significant results. I conclude with a discussion of possible explanations for these findings, make policy recommendations with the knowledge gained from this research, and offer suggestions for future investigations.

The purpose of this descriptive study is to determine if there is a difference in citizen trust in Orange County government regarding the handling of disaster. Various dimensions like competence, benevolence, and integrity can determine a citizen's trust within its government. Disasters, such as man-made and natural, are described as a disruption to society through widespread damage to people and material. Counties experience man-made and natural disasters. Depending on its response to the incidents, counties can determine if the citizens view the county as a trustworthy and responsible government body. This study explored if there were differences in citizen trust in government response to different disasters and if citizens of different demographics had differing levels of trust. This study found that 1) there is no statistical difference between the average citizen trust scores between the two disasters 2) there is no statistical difference between the average citizen trust scores for the two groups, and 3) there is no statistical difference between the overall average citizen trust score between older and younger generations.

Trots en markant ökning av vaktpersonal i privat regi under de senaste decennierna finns det inte mycket empirisk forskning om allmänhetens uppfattning av väktare. I detta arbete undersöks malmöbornas tillit till och tillfredställelse med väktare och syftet med studien är att får en inblick i allmänhetens inställning till vaktpersonal. Enkäter delades ut i Malmö med frågor angående upplevd tillit till väktare, tillfredställelse med väktare samt frågor om respondenternas uppfattning av väktares professionalitet, ansvarskyldighet, framställning och artighet. Urvalet bestod av 78 respondenter och resultaten tyder på att den allmänna uppfattningen av vaktpersonal är mer positiv än negativ. Upplevd professionalitet hos väktare påverkade tillit till väktare och upplevd artighet hos väktare påverkade tillfredställelse med väktare. Hur man upplevt väktares beteende vid personlig kontakt visade sig påverka uppfattningen av både tillit till och tillfredställelse med vaktpersonal. Studier om allmänhetens uppfattning av vaktpersonal kan användas i utbildande syfte för vaktbolag för att påverka väktares beteende och agerande mot allmänheten. Ökad kännedom av allmänhetens inställning till vaktpersonal är även relevant för politiker i deras ställningstagande av framtida reglering av den privata säkerhetsindustrin. / Despite the rapid increase in private security guards in recent decades, little is known about citizens’ perception of security guards. In this paper citizens’ trust and satisfaction with security guards is assessed. The aim of the study is to get an insight into citizens’ perception of private security guards in Malmö. Paper and pencil surveys were distributed in Malmö with questions regarding perceived trust and satisfaction with security guards and about security guards’ professionalism, accountability, imagery, and civility. The sample consisted of 78 respondents and the findings suggest that the overall perception of security guards was more positive than negative, however, the results were largely mixed. Perceived professionalism predicted satisfaction with security guards and perceived civility predicted trust in security guards. Also, security guard behavior while interacting with the public was a strong predictor of both trust and satisfaction with security personnel. Results from this study and similar studies can be used by private security organizations to educate staff in order to improve the public perception of security guards. It may also be useful for policy makers in order to make more educated decisions about future regulation of the private security industry.

公共行政近年在外在資訊社會形成，和治理需求發展下面臨巨大的衝擊，民調顯示公民信任政府的程度每況愈下，許多學者主張正視制度效率與效能、更新政府流程、組織與程序再造的呼籲，各國政府也在新一波政府再造運動的推波助瀾下，不斷提出新公共管理的計畫，欲圖藉由政策的落實，提供人民新的治理形象，並達成最終信任政府，發展公民－政府間未來互信、合作的善治願景。 　　然而，新公共管理的理論，是否受制於私部門管理主義的利潤及購買行為之考量而有所侷限？公民信任復是否可與顧客忠誠度等量齊觀？無疑是新公共管理實踐的最大障礙，也有待以實證的角度發展相關研究，選取最適的計畫，驗證公民基礎績效、微觀績效等績效理論假設。 　　就此而言，電子化政府實為一理想的驗證個案，首先，其具有打破微觀以迄鉅視界線的體制，因其可超越平行與垂直單位劃分特質，避免微觀績效受限於以往政府信任是否「鉅視概念」之爭辯；其次，電子化政府的發展，在達成善治的階段性導引下，具有完備轉換行政模式的潛力，甚至形成制度性的替代；再者，電子化政府的服務考量向來是以公民中心為主體設計，其不僅可能從顧客滿意度角度監控其服務達成公民期望，也可以從人民對其回應性的認知了解其問責的能力，並從此二變項與公民信任相連結，建立信任的路徑。 　　是以，研究者針對較常使用我國電子化政府的網路公民，進行「服務品質」、「滿意度」、「回應性」、「公民信任」等認知的調查研究，發現服務品質、滿意度均係影響公民對電子化政府信任的正向要因，說明微觀績效的連結確實存在。而回應性雖亦確受到服務品質的影響，但其與公民信任之間的關係則甚為微弱，在概念上宜再深入討論。 　　基此，研究者認為，現階段電子化政府應重視前開以公民為中心，及契合階段性發展的設計，儲存公民信任，以電子化政府制度化的達成，促成未來真正打破官僚舊作的行政再生。 / In recent years, the high-speed shaping of information society and citizen’s wishing of good governance have made great impact on the governors and researchers of public administration. Public-opinion data showed that citizen’s trust in government dropped dramatically under enormous changes of external environment. For recovering citizen trust, many scholars claimed that the public authorities should pay much attention to make sure the whole system accountable, west governments also created New Public Management (NPM) programs to mold the trustworthy image of country’s administration. The NPM theory, backing up the movement of “Reinventing Government”, borrows a few conceptions from the field of business management. But the research workers still concern whether there existed conflicts of conception between the public and private value. To resolving this question, we have to examine the causality of NPM theory which links government performance and public trust to prove the validity of performance theories in the process of theory application. That is to say, we must know if citizen trust could result from “performance-satisfaction-loyalty” sequence just like the description of business marketing textbook. For the objective of affirming the connection of performance and citizen trust, I chose E-Government policy to be the study target and designed an inter-net investigation to analysis the public’s cognition. By path analysis, a quality research method, I found that the performance factors, including service quality and client satisfaction, indeed influenced citizen trust. Especially, service quality could produce direct and indirect effects on trust in the meantime. But the other independent factor, responsiveness, usually discussed in the political field, could not affect citizen trust. Importantly, this result supported the validity of NPM theory to construct the path of restoring citizen trust by reforming way of electronic governing institution.

長久以來，電子化政府與公民信任之間的因果關係，一直為學者所爭論。眾多研究顯示電子化政府有助於促進公民信任感；然而，目前公民對現有電子化政府服務、電子參與滿意度偏低，且台灣社會資本逐步流失，不免令人質疑電子化政府建立公民信任感的有效性。然而，近年電子治理的提出，眾人期待實現審慎思辨的民主，顯現運用資訊通信科技讓更多公民參與決策過程的重要性。因而引起作者在電子治理對公民信任影響上研究的興趣。 本文認為電子化政府可以促進公民對政府的信任，但前提是這項機制必須值得信賴，否則將出現反效果。故作者從電子治理中的電子參與著手，探討其對公民信任的影響。主要研究方法為文獻回顧及深度訪談，其中訪談對象為十四位具我國電子參與經驗者，運用質性研究分析訪談資料，輔以文獻檢閱釐清電子參與與公民信任之間的影響路徑與因素包括三種類型：1.使用電子參與後，其正面影響因素提升公民對政府的信任感；2.使用電子參與後，其負面影響因素降低公民的內在政治效能感，進而削弱對政府的信任感；3.公民對政府的低度信任，降低使用電子參與的意願與行為。 訪談分析顯示公民對政府的信任和政府電子參與機制的信任感不足，且兩者相互影響。受訪者對政府的信任感比對政府網站和電子參與機制的信任感低，而電子參與經驗豐富者，較不信任電子參與機制；電子參與經驗淺者，較信任電子參與機制。若以電子參與的三種類型觀之，公民對電子資訊提供較為滿意、電子諮詢次之，雖然我國尚未設置電子決策制定，但是多數受訪者對此機制運作表示質疑。 我國電子參與仍在持續推動中，政府應該正視公民信任的重要性，以及電子參與與公民信任之間的負面影響因素，著重在：資訊的深度與多元性、資訊透明度、資訊品質、搜尋系統的設計完善、回應性、使用者的代表性、論壇引導話題、資訊安全與互動性的維護，並消弭數位落差、避免資訊超載等情況，以營造公民進行電子參與的環境與設備，使其有足夠誘因使用，期許我國電子參與推行順利。 / The casual relationship between e-government and citizen trust(in government) has been argued by scholars. Research has shown that e-government may improve citizen trust, but citizens are not satisfied with e-services and e-participation nowadays. When social capital in Taiwan is flowing away, people tend to suspect the effectiveness of e-government in establishing citizen trust. However, citizens still expect deliberative democracy while e-governance comes to reality recently. It means that the importance of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) can enrich the process of decision-making for citizen participation. That’s the reason why the author attempts to explore the effect of e-participation on citizen trust. The evidence support that e-government can improve citizen trust in government. The premise, nevertheless, is its mechanism has gained fundamental trust; otherwise, negative effects will come out. The main research methods include literature review and in-depth interview. There are 14 interviewees with experience of e-participation in Taiwan. In addition, the author used qualitative method to analyze interview data. Besides, using literature to induce three types of effects paths and causes between e-participation and citizen trust. Firstly, after using e-participation, its positive factors improve citizen trust in government. Secondly, after using e-participation, its negative factors lower internal efficacy of citizen and then weaken their trust in government. Thirdly, the low trust in government will weaken willingness and behavior of e-participation. Interview results indicate the lack of citizen trust in government and e-participation, and both also connect each other. Interviewees’ trust in government is lower than their trust in government web sites and e-participation. Citizens with rich experience of e-participation show lower trust in e-participation. On the other hand, those with poor experience of e-participation have more trust in e-participation. If we observe three types of e-participation, citizens are more satisfied with e-information than e-consultation. Although e-decision-making has not been realized in Taiwan, many interviewees suspect this mechanism. The governments in Taiwan keep pushing e-participation. They should know the importance of citizen trust and the negative factors between e-participation and citizen trust revealed in the study. Particularly, governments should focus on depth and diverse information, transparency, quality of information, friendly use of search engine, responsiveness, and representative. They should also properly manage topics of e-forum, information safety, interactivity; eliminate digital divide and avoid information overload. Government should strive for good environment and facilitate citizen usage of e-participation. Our e-participation will succeed while government has good inducement to encourage citizen.