TY - JOUR
T1 - Compliance with Public Health Orders
T2 - The Role of Trust, Representation, and Expertise
AU - Stauffer, Katelyn E.
AU - Miller, Susan M.
AU - Keiser, Lael R.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2023.
PY - 2023/12
Y1 - 2023/12
N2 - Governments rely on citizen compliance to implement policies. Yet, in the current climate where citizens express low levels of trust in government, gaining compliance can prove challenging. Scholarship suggests other factors that might promote compliance even in the absence of trust. We examine two: expertise and descriptive representation across race, gender, and partisanship. We experimentally activate general (dis)trust in government and use a conjoint experiment to examine multiple factors that might shape citizens’ willingness to comply with and trust government guidance related to COVID-19. We find that shared partisanship and consultation with experts have the largest effects. We also see an effect of shared racial identity on compliance for Black Americans, at least when trust is relatively low. As we consider the role of trust, expertise, and descriptive representation across race, gender, and partisanship simultaneously, the results offer important insights into factors that underpin citizens’ willingness to comply with government mandates. Our results have important real-world implications, highlighting the importance of bipartisan responses to crises as well as ensuring racial representation in government. They also demonstrate that explicitly involving experts in decision-making processes increases citizens’ willingness to comply with policy.
AB - Governments rely on citizen compliance to implement policies. Yet, in the current climate where citizens express low levels of trust in government, gaining compliance can prove challenging. Scholarship suggests other factors that might promote compliance even in the absence of trust. We examine two: expertise and descriptive representation across race, gender, and partisanship. We experimentally activate general (dis)trust in government and use a conjoint experiment to examine multiple factors that might shape citizens’ willingness to comply with and trust government guidance related to COVID-19. We find that shared partisanship and consultation with experts have the largest effects. We also see an effect of shared racial identity on compliance for Black Americans, at least when trust is relatively low. As we consider the role of trust, expertise, and descriptive representation across race, gender, and partisanship simultaneously, the results offer important insights into factors that underpin citizens’ willingness to comply with government mandates. Our results have important real-world implications, highlighting the importance of bipartisan responses to crises as well as ensuring racial representation in government. They also demonstrate that explicitly involving experts in decision-making processes increases citizens’ willingness to comply with policy.
KW - COVID-19
KW - local government representation
KW - partisanship
KW - public health compliance
KW - race and gender identity politics
KW - representative bureaucracy
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85162769966&partnerID=8YFLogxK
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U2 - 10.1177/10659129231182375
DO - 10.1177/10659129231182375
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85162769966
SN - 1065-9129
VL - 76
SP - 1888
EP - 1905
JO - Political Research Quarterly
JF - Political Research Quarterly
IS - 4
ER -