Citizens’ Confidence in Government Control of Corruption: An Empirical Analysis

This study provides a nuanced and interactive analysis of institutional confidence in government. It investigates the drivers of institutional confidence by differentiating them into outcome-based and performance-based modes and examining the interaction between the two modes in influencing confidence levels. Drawing on survey data obtained from three Chinese cities, this study extends the two-dimensional analytical framework to examine public confidence in the government’s control of corruption. The study has the dual purpose of analyzing how citizens differ in their confidence in the government’s anti-corruption efforts and what factors influence their views. The findings indicate that citizens’ confidence in government control of corruption is affected by their perceptions of the level of existing corruption and by the extent to which they are satisfied with their government’s anti-corruption efforts. The findings also reveal that the public’s positive perceptions of anti-corruption performance moderate the negative impact that their perception of corruption has on their confidence in government control of corruption.