Effects of deregulation and performance on government accountability: Role of trust in Korea, Japan, and the United States

DOIhttp://doi.org/10.1002/pa.1889
Published date01 May 2019
Date01 May 2019
ACADEMIC PAPER
Effects of deregulation and performance on government
accountability: Role of trust in Korea, Japan, and the
United States
Kwangseon Hwang
Department of Public Administration, Gachon
University, Seongnam, Korea
Correspondence
Kwangseon Hwang, Gachon University,
Seongnam, Korea.
Email: kwangseonhwang@gmail.com
Public administration has been struggling to address the balance between conflicting
government values. Trust in the study is employed as nodal value to reconcile modern
management dilemma concerning conflicting relationships between performance and
accountability and between discretion and accountability. Using 2012 International
Social Survey Program data, this paper analyzed the moderator and mediator role of
government trust among discretion, performance, and accountability in cases of South
Korea, Japan, and the United States.
This study used factor analysis and ordinary least square multiple regression analysis.
The statistical results partially confirmed the hypotheses regarding the mediating and
moderating role of trust: (a) the moderating effect of the trust on the relationship
between performance and accountability in South Korea; (b) the moderating impact
of the trust on the relationship between deregulation and accountability in Japan;
and (c) when governments work well, it leads to high level of trust, in turn followed
by high accountability in the United States and Japan.
1|INTRODUCTION
Competing expectations of the public toward the government are
disclosed in diverse values such as accountability, performance, and
deregulation that the government wants to accomplish (Aucoin &
Heintzman, 2000; Potrafke, 2010; Van de Walle & Bouckaert, 2003).
Citizens want that the government makes good performance with
revenue obtained through taxation rather than bad performance. Such
good performance includes providing relevant health care for the sick,
effectively controlling crime, protecting environment, and so on. Also,
private enterprise organizations have suggested in their political
strategies that the government should pursue a level of relevant busi-
ness deregulation to support new product (Boddewyn, 1988; Hillman
& Wan, 2005). In democratic society, citizens also have showed
complaints on extreme security investigation in the airport. Finally,
they want the government to be fairly accountable to their demand
without corruption. Therefore, those performance, deregulation, and
accountability are meaningful government goals what most of
democratic countries expect the government to simultaneously fulfill
without neglecting any of the three values (Aucoin & Heintzman,
2000; Potrafke, 2010).
A growing literature indicates that they are valuable principles to
pursue in itself, and those values could be studied individually. How-
ever, the principles are not unrelated but have been intertwined in
the public administration and can be influenced strongly by the buildup
of other values: positive relationship between performance and
accountability (e.g., Behn, 2001; Romzek & Dubnick, 1987), positive
relationship between deregulation and performance (e.g., Coggburn,
2000; Mohan, 2002), and positive impact of deregulation on account-
ability (e.g., Coggburn, 2000; Romzek, 1997). Then, if those three
values all are positively associated and can be helpful in building up
together, it is the most ideal direction for citizens and enterprises as
well as the government.
However, those values can have a negative or insignificant impact
on each other according to existing evidences: for example, negative
relationship between performance and accountability (Adelberg &
Received: 10 August 2018 Accepted: 13 October 2018
DOI: 10.1002/pa.1889
J Public Affairs. 2019;19:e1889.
https://doi.org/10.1002/pa.1889
© 2019 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/pa 1of8

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