TY - JOUR
T1 - Does enforcement style influence citizen trust in regulatory agencies?
T2 - An experiment in six countries
AU - Grimmelikhuijsen, Stephan
AU - Aleksovska, Marija
AU - van Erp, Judith
AU - Gilad, Sharon
AU - Maman, Libby
AU - Bach, Tobias
AU - Kappler, Moritz
AU - Van Dooren, Wouter
AU - Schomaker, Rahel M.
AU - Salomonsen, Heidi Houlberg
PY - 2024/10/17
Y1 - 2024/10/17
N2 - Establishing and maintaining citizen trust is vital for the effectiveness and long-term viability of regulatory agencies. However, limited empirical research has been conducted on the relationship between regulatory action and citizen trust. This article addresses this gap by investigating the influence of various regulatory enforcement styles on citizen trust. We conducted a pre-registered and representative survey experiment in six countries (n = 5,765): Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Israel, the Netherlands, and Norway. Our study focuses on three key dimensions of enforcement style: formalism, coerciveness, and accommodation. We hypothesize that a strict and punitive enforcement style with minimal accommodation will enhance citizen trust. Surprisingly, we found no overall effect of enforcement on trust. However, specifically high levels of formalism (strictness) and coerciveness (punitiveness) exhibited a small positive effect on trust. Furthermore, we observed no discernible impact of an accommodative enforcement style. Additional analyses revealed that the effects of enforcement style were not consistent across country and regulatory domains. This suggests we need to reconsider assumptions underlying enforcement theory, as our findings imply that public trust seems less conditional on heavy-handed enforcement than initially anticipated.
AB - Establishing and maintaining citizen trust is vital for the effectiveness and long-term viability of regulatory agencies. However, limited empirical research has been conducted on the relationship between regulatory action and citizen trust. This article addresses this gap by investigating the influence of various regulatory enforcement styles on citizen trust. We conducted a pre-registered and representative survey experiment in six countries (n = 5,765): Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Israel, the Netherlands, and Norway. Our study focuses on three key dimensions of enforcement style: formalism, coerciveness, and accommodation. We hypothesize that a strict and punitive enforcement style with minimal accommodation will enhance citizen trust. Surprisingly, we found no overall effect of enforcement on trust. However, specifically high levels of formalism (strictness) and coerciveness (punitiveness) exhibited a small positive effect on trust. Furthermore, we observed no discernible impact of an accommodative enforcement style. Additional analyses revealed that the effects of enforcement style were not consistent across country and regulatory domains. This suggests we need to reconsider assumptions underlying enforcement theory, as our findings imply that public trust seems less conditional on heavy-handed enforcement than initially anticipated.
KW - Comparative research
KW - Enforcement
KW - Regulatory agencies
KW - Survey experiment
KW - Trust
UR - https://www.webofscience.com/api/gateway?GWVersion=2&SrcApp=d7dz6a2i7wiom976oc9ff2iqvdhv8k5x&SrcAuth=WosAPI&KeyUT=WOS:001330248100001&DestLinkType=FullRecord&DestApp=WOS_CPL
U2 - 10.1093/jopart/muae018
DO - 10.1093/jopart/muae018
M3 - Article
SN - 1053-1858
JO - Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory
JF - Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory
ER -