Local government performance through the eyes of citizens

Abstract

Citizens generally do not have a good understanding of local government and consequently have difficulty assessing performance objectively. Instead, they permit a variety of indicators and sources of information to shape their perceptions of government. This research takes a first step toward an improved understanding of citizen-government relations, especially focusing on how citizens see government. The survey results from over 1800 citizens in Orange County, Florida (including the metropolitan area of Orlando) are analyzed through a series of multiple regression models employing varied assumptions and citizen populations to better understand what drives citizen perceptions of local government performance. To effectively change citizen-government relations, local government must honor citizen values and priorities by demonstrating that it listens to citizens and acts on what it hears.

Measuring Street Cleanliness: A Comparison of New York City’s Scorecard and Results from a Citizen Survey

“…infl uence citizens' overall satisfaction with and trust in government ( Glazer and Denhardt 2000 ;. And as Hatry et al (1992) point out, the use of surveys may be the only way to collect key data government agencies need to evaluate and improve the services they provide, such as participation rates, unreported complaints, and demographic details on the users of particular services.…”

Service Delivery Satisfaction and Willingness to Pay Taxes: Citizen Recognition of Local Government Performance

“…Studies have indicated that citizens' definition of government performance tends to be closely tied to perceptions of responsiveness (Glaser & Denhardt, 1997 between the tax-performance classification of citizens and their responsiveness rating of government. Although the performance element of the classification is the dominant connection to perceptions of responsiveness, resistance to taxation also appears to have a role in the outcome.…”

“…shows that citizens are more likely to recognize and assign value to responsiveness (Glaser & Denhardt, 1997 This research uses analysis of variance to look through the eyes of citizens based on their combined orientation toward willingness to pay taxes and their assessment of the performance of local government based on overall satisfaction rating of local government services. Six classes of citizens are defined based on combined willingness to pay increased taxes and perceptions of local government performance, referred to as the tax-performance classification system.…”

Who Cares: Stakeholder Participation and the Use of Performance Information in Strategic Planning

“…On the other hand, government authorities need performance information to establish a positive image of governmental reform (Moynihan, 2008); performance data is helpful in reflecting governmental effectiveness (Coutry & Marschke, 2004;Van Thiel & Leeuw, 2002). Citizens cannot form perceptions of governmental performance without performance information (Berman 1997;Bok, 1997;Weil, 1989;Glaser & Denhardt, 2000). According to Holzer and Callahan (1998), governments demonstrate their success with performance effectiveness as a way of facilitating citizen-government communication.…”