Does Local Government Affect Community Satisfaction of Younger Generation in Rural Areas? The Case of Jeonbuk, South Korea

This study examines the relationship between public service satisfaction, trust in local government, and community satisfaction. Previous studies on community satisfaction have insufficiently dealt with public services or trust in local government and have not fully conducted an integrated analysis. To close these knowledge gaps, this study includes public service satisfaction that was constructed with the subcomponents economic support, education, and public safety and trust in local government as factors affecting community satisfaction. Moreover, this study verified the mediating effect of trust in local government between public service satisfaction and community satisfaction. Online surveys were carried out with 980 residents in Jeonbuk, Korea, and structural equation modeling (SEM) was employed. The results indicated that public service satisfaction affected community satisfaction directly or indirectly. In particular, the satisfaction with public safety influenced community satisfaction both directly and indirectly. In addition, trust in local government had a mediating effect between all sub-components of public service satisfaction and community satisfaction. Today, regional disparity between urban and rural areas in developing countries is widening. As a result, residents in rural areas are gradually moving to urban areas. Therefore, rural areas need to increase the community satisfaction of their residents. In this regard, this study suggests important policy implications for community satisfaction enhancement.