Managerial Quality, Administrative Performance and Trust in Governance: Can We Point to Causality?

The relationship between managerial quality, administrative performance and citizens' trust in government and in public administration systems is a field of study that so far has not received adequate scholarly attention. This article explores some interrelationships between these variables and empirically tests between causality, if it exists, between performance and trust. Applying a technique of structural equation modelling (SEM) with LISREL 8.3 the study examined a sample of 345 Israeli citizens and compared three alternative models. The second model that showed a quality → performance → trust relationship fitted the data best. However, the third model also had some advantages worthy of elaboration. Thus, we concluded that administrative performance may be treated as a precondition to trust in governance rather than trust serving as the precondition to performance. The article ends with further discussion of the findings and their meaning in light of the democratic, bureaucratic and new public management theory.