How Well Do Civil Servants Understand Citizens' Preferences and Expectations?

• In Event: Elites and Public Opinion: Perception, Manipulation, Mobilization

Abstract

Public servants in meritocratic bureaucracies are presumed to possess the competence and knowledge necessary to act on behalf of citizens. But to what extent do civil servants actually understand citizens’ preferences and future expectations when implementing policies?

To investigate this question, we employed two conjoint survey experiments. In these experiments, civil servant respondents were presented with randomly selected demographic, socioeconomic, and political profiles of citizens. They were then asked to evaluate: 1) which citizen is likely to be satisfied with the current policy direction in major issue areas, including economic, foreign, civil service personnel, and housing policies; and 2) which citizen is likely to hold more positive future expectations for the national economy, quality of household life, and international disputes in the following year.

We analyzed over 6,000 responses from national civil servants in South Korea and compared these findings with actual public opinion data. To our knowledge, this is the first experimental study designed to compare citizens’ policy preferences and future expectations with civil servants’ perceptions of such views. Our analysis has important implications for our understanding of bureaucratic accountability to citizens and the efficacy of democratic governance and policy implementation.

Authors

• Don S. Lee, Sungkyunkwan University

• Charles T. McClean, Yale University