Determinants of Overall Public Trust in Local Government: Meditation of Government Response to COVID-19 in Indonesian Context

Abstract

Purpose This study aims to empirically investigate the relationship of perceived transparency, perceived accountability and perceived responsiveness with overall public trust in local government. Moreover, it addressed the “why” and “how” questions about the existence of this relationship by examining the underlying mechanism of the government response to COVID-19. Design/methodology/approach Quantitative research design is applied in the current study. Data was collected from two cities situated in Indonesia via a cross-sectional survey at local administration levels. The final data set of 330 respondents was then analyzed using Smart partial least square (PLS)3 by testing through the measurement and structural model. Findings Results revealed positive associations among the study variables. Also, the mediatory role of the government response to COVID-19 was supported by the results. Originality/value This study aims to bring awareness and contribution in the body of knowledge about the importance of elements of good governance in building and sustaining public trust in local governments based on the fact that in countries such as Indonesia, there is a dearth of literature in this context. Further, it provides strategic and practical suggestions to the state regarding the advantages of using good governance practices in their communication with citizens in certain and uncertain situations, especially nowadays during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Covid-19 sentiments in smart cities: The role of technology anxiety before and during the pandemic

“…Trust has a key role in reducing perceived risk, enhancing usage behavior, behavioural intention ( Yoon, 2002 ), and perceiving the usefulness of technology ( Ha & Stoel, 2009 ). In the sample of tweets, citizens do not show a lack of trust in technology per se but reveal a mistrust in policymakers’ application of smart technologies and in governmental support to use technology ( Hartanto & Siregar, 2021 ).…”

The role of government risk communication in public health emergencies: evidence from the COVID-19 pandemic

“…The successful containment of a pandemic often required rapid and effective responses from the governments (Coombs and Holladay, 2008; Hartanto and Siregar, 2021). Literature has documented that during a pandemic, in addition to important containment measures such as quarantine, travel and mobility restrictions, social distancing and so forth, risk communication has been an important task to enhance public awareness, thereby contributing to the containment of a pandemic (Abraham, 2011; Ding, 2013; Duong et al , 2020; Li et al , 2008).…”

Guest editorial

“…Yeo and Lee in their paper on South Korea demonstrate that the successful response to the pandemic is attributable to a nationwide whole-community coproduction among multiple actors, including government, various industries, sectors and jurisdictions. In a similar vein, Hartanto and Siregar (2021), by elucidating the case of Indonesia, stress the importance of good governance and, therefore, also the capacity to mobilize all actors, in effectively responding to the pandemic. The following two papers focus on specific dimensions of the government response to COVID-19, namely, the field of education.…”

“…The papers included in this Special Issue may be divided into two groups, i.e. papers dealing with broad, overarching issues relating to the process of managing the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, including democracy and accountability (Parry et al, 2020) as well as regulatory issues (Sokołowski, 2020); papers elaborating on national case studies, including the cases of South Africa (Naudé and Cameron, 2021), Botswana (Mandiyanike and Moeti, 2021), South Korea (Yeo and Lee, 2020), Indonesia (Hartanto and Siregar, 2021), Kazakhstan (Bokayev et al, 2021) and the USA (Johnson et al, 2021). The topics that the authors highlight include the efficiency and drawbacks of national responses to the pandemic.…”