Social Sciences in China (Chinese Edition)

No.2, 2017

A Sociological Analysis of the Pattern of Trust in Government When “the Center Is Strong and Local Government Weak”： Based on Third-stage Tracking Data Following the Wenchuan Earthquake

(Abstract)

Luo Jiade, Shuai Man and Yang Kunhao

Individual and community social capital exert a marked influence upon the gap between trust in higher-level government and base-level government. When we introduced data on 30 villages after the Wenchuan earthquake into our model, we found that the size of the Chinese New Year greeting network and the cadre network at township level and above, as well as the level of trust between people from the same village, had a significant negative effect upon the gap between trust in higher and lower levels of government. The construction of individual and community social capital is conducive to creating a balanced level of trust in different levels of government: individuals and communities with effective cooperation have more channels for solving their own livelihood problems, and can significantly improve the efficiency of their exploitation of resources and increase communication and interaction with government in their contacts with resources from different quarters and with government. This enhances their trust in base-level government and decreases the gap between trust in different levels of government.