期刊名称:International Public Management Review (IPMR)
出版年度:2007
卷号:8
期号:2
页码:183-199
出版社:International Public Management Network
摘要:The decline of trust in government has been a critical issue in many parts of the world.
Various surveys have indicated that the public cast suspicious eyes on their government
and become less trustful of performance of their public sector. The OECD labels trust in
government as a fundamental element of the democratic ¡°contract¡±, while its decline
may have significant impacts on government activities. Likewise, the UN also refers to
trust as the foundation for good governance; therefore, improving trust would help
strengthen sound governance in any polity. As these examples demonstrate, trust in
government has increasingly become a central concern for government reformers.
In Japan, for a long time, bureaucrats have been perceived to be trustful social agents
and they have enjoyed more confidence than those of party members. However, a series of
scandals involving high-ranking bureaucrats, in addition to several policy failures and
severe financial difficulties, have deteriorated the trustful image of Japanese public
officials. Confronted with the problem, both central and local governments in Japan
have attempted to improve their public perceptions and tried to rebuild trust in
government by resorting to various types of administrative reform. However, the
identification of reasons for the decline of public trust in government appear an awesome
task and hard to come. While some of the reforms could have contributed rebuilding
trust, others have further eroded the level of government confidence.
Against these backgrounds, the paper aims to show the current level of trust in
government, specifically in Japan. It tries to assess government efforts of rebuilding
trust by discussing different government reforms at both the central and the local levels.