Research On Distribution Characteristics And Influencing Factors Of Hierarchical Government Trust In Contemporary China

"Hierarchical Government Trust(HGT)" is a special term which indicates that residents'trust in their governments at all levels decreases with the decline of government levels.“Strong in the central government and weak in the local government”is a typical feature of the government trust structure,and the feature is most prominent in China among the major Asian countries.There are some negative tendencies in the political effect of HGT,such as weakening local governance,damaging central authority and hindering the modernization process of state governance-Therefore,it is necessary and urgent to systematically study HGT in contemporary China.Based on the theories of neo-institutionalism,political culture and political communication,from the national,urban&rural and regional levels,this paper reveals distribution characteristics of HGT in contemporary China in a multi-dimensional way under the background of global government trust and in comparison with the major Asian countries.Conducting an empirical examination and comparative analysis of its influence factors,this paper will also put forward some countermeasures and suggestions to bridge the trust gap between the central and local governments under the premise of guaranteeing the trust level of the central government.The research on the distribution characteristics of China's contemporary HGT shows:on the national level of the country,the HGT of "trong in the central government and weak in the local government" and the non-HGT of "strong in both the central government and the local government" are the main stream forms of government trust.On the regional and urban&rural levels,the rural residents' degree of HGT is more significant than that of the urban residents.The degree of HGT of the western and central residents is more significant than that of the eastern residents.The above conclusions show that in contemporary China,we can remain optimistic and positive in terms of residents'trust degree in the central government government.However,from the perspective of residents 'trust gap with the central and local governments,the tendency of local government trust crisis has emerged,which is more serious in the rural areas,central and western regions.This paper takes geographical distribution and demographic characteristics as control variables,institution,culture and medium as main explanatory variables,and conducts empirical tests and comparisons on the significance of five variables(factors)influencing HGT and its differences between the central and local governments.Firstly,on the national level of the country,these five types of factors all significantly influence residents' trust degree of HGT.In terms of the main explanatory variables,institutional normative performance and relative deprivation of the institutional factors,social capital,political contacts and political values of the cultural factors and frequency of Internet use of the media factors all significantly affect residents' trust degree of HGT.Secondly,on the urban&rural level,institutional,cultural and media factors all have significant impact on the urban and rural residents' trust degree of HGT.Among them,perception of performance rationality and sense of relative deprivation in institutional factors have significant impact on the urban and rural residents' trust degree of HGT,while institutional normative performance has only a significant impact on urban residents.Social capital and political contacts in cultural factors have significant impact on the urban and rural residents'trust degree of HGT,while political values only affect rural residents.Among the media factors,frequency of television use and Internet use significantly affect the rural and urban residents' trust degree of HGT.Finally,on the regional level,institutional and cultural factors all significantly affect the trust degree of HGT of the western,central and eastern residents.Media factors only have a significant impact on the eastern residents.Among them,sense of relative deprivation in the institutional factors has a significant impact on the trust degree of HGT of the western,central and eastern residents.Institutional normative performance has a significant impact on the central and eastern residents,and rational perception of performance only has a significant impact on the central residents.Social capital and political contacts in the cultural factors have significant impact on the western,central and eastern residents.The influence of political values on the western,central and eastern residents shows a trend from gradual weakening to disappearing..Frequency of Internet use in the media factors only significantly affects the trust degree of HGT of the eastern residents.This paper reveals the distribution characteristics and influence factors of HGT in contemporary China.It not only provides a more precise policy direction for the positive bridging of HGT at the national,urban&rural and regional levels,but also provides a basic research reference for the study of the evolution of HGT and the change of government trust structure in China.It has both realistic care meaning and future guidance effect.