Social Indicators Research

Quality of government · Life satisfaction · China

How quality of government affects residents’ life satisfaction is a seldom discussed subject,
especially in a non-democratic context. This research aims to address that gap by focusing
on the case of China. It investigates the relation between different aspects of quality of
government and Chinese residents’ happiness. Our data was provided by telephone interviews
of 5015 residents in Shandong Province. The findings indicate that the majority of
China’s citizens consider their lives offer them a high level of satisfaction. Positively and
significantly contributing to their life satisfaction are the government’s trustworthiness and
responsiveness, and its performance in public service delivery. This result implies that the
quality of government has a positive and important impact on Chinese citizens’ happiness,
both technically in terms of its ability to deliver public services efficiently, and politically
in terms of the extent of democracy involved. But of these, it seems that the former is the
more significant. The reasons for this lie in the country’s level of economic development,
in China’s political culture, and in the policing mechanisms of the regime.

刘华兴

黄晴（通讯）

高红

Management Science

Public Administration

J

147

3

971-990

0303-8300

No

2020-02

SSCI