Explaining Citizen-Initiated Contacts with Municipal Bureaucrats

Abstract

Citizen-initiated contacts represent an important, yet perplexing, category of political participation. The authors attempt to provide a comprehensive explanation of when and why citizens initiate contacts. They draw from prior research to summarize knowledge about these contacts and the measurement problems that have plagued earlier research. To explore the bases for citizeninitiated contacts, they use survey data on contacts with various municipal departments of the city of Atlanta. Logistic regressions of 15 different types of contacts reveal perceived needs as the most consistently significant predictor of most types. The influence of socioeconomic status over contacting is indirect.Citizen-initiated contacts with government, in which individual citizens contact government personnel with requests for services or complaints, represent an interesting but often puzzling category of political participation. Essentially discovered as a research issue only a quarter century ago, these contacts appear to constitute a substantial and perhaps growing component of citizen involvement with government. Yet, a comprehensive explanation of when and why citizens initiate these contacts has proved elusive, so elusive that one researcher concluded recently that "the study of citizen-initiated contacts stands in a state of serious disarray" (Coulter 1992, 313).

Citizen–Government Interaction and the Internet: Expectations and Accomplishments in Contact, Quality, and Trust

“…Our findings also suggest that citizen-initiated contact is driven by the need for a specific government service or the perceived need for service, as has been suggested by earlier literature (Sharp, 1986;Thomas, 1982;Thomas & Melkers, 1999). In support of this argument, we find that Latinos and individuals with lower income are significantly more likely to apply for benefits online.…”

“…The literature on citizen-initiated contact finds that contact is often precipitated by need (or perceived need) for a specific government service; this suggests that individuals who contact govemment have a greater stake or interest in government (Sharp, 1986;Thomas, 1982;Thomas & Melkers, 1999). To control for the influence of stakeholders, parents and govemment employees are included in the models.…”

Who Engages in the Coproduction of Local Public Services and Why? The Case of Atlanta, Georgia

“…That frequent focus on personal needs suggests the potential value of theories of citizen‐initiated contacting of governments, in which individual citizens phone, email, or text governments with requests for or complaints about services (e.g., Coulter ; Hirlinger ). Similar to involvement in coproduction, “Citizen‐initiated contacts differ most clearly from other types of political participation by their roots in needs for government services” (Thomas and Melkers , 668).…”

“…Citizen contacting theory gives principal emphasis to perceived needs because “the needs likely to be crucial in motivating contacts are those that citizens perceive for particular government services,” not needs in some objective economic sense (e.g., low income) (Thomas and Melkers , 669). Those needs might also be expected to influence coproductive involvement, but differentially depending on the form of coproduction.…”

End-User Satisfaction and Design Features of Public Agencies

“…10-11); (c) a need for empirical research that links public satisfaction explicitly with specific design features that cut across varied levels of public agencies, moving beyond a focus at one level of government such as municipal (e.g., Streib & Poister, 1999, p. 111) or federal (e.g., Hall, 2002, p. 23); and (d) a need for empirical research that examines the relationship between end-user discretion in choosing public services or products available to them, design features of public agencies, and enduser satisfaction (Kelly & Swindell, 2003;Thomas & Melkers, 1999).…”