Perceived cadre corruption and government responsibility in China: does the blame stay local, and why (not)?

ABSTRACT Using data from a 2008 nationwide survey in China, this study explores the relationship of perceived local-level corruption to government trust in an established authoritarian regime. With nearly two thirds of respondents considering cadre corruption to be a ‘serious problem,’ the authors find that perceptions of serious corruption are significantly and negatively related to trust in officials at all levels of government, including the central level. Contrary to extant findings that the Center is shielded from blame for well-intended policies that fail, the findings of this study suggest that when it comes to assigning blame for continued corruption, Chinese citizens – and especially urban Chinese – do not let Central officials off scot-free. Pushing further in an attempt to understand why some urban Chinese citizens seemingly hold the central government partly responsible for cadre corruption while others do not, analyses cast the spotlight on the level of education. As anticipated, education level is by itself negatively related to trust in the central government, but there is also unexpected evidence that among urbanites who perceive corruption to be a serious problem, it is actually the most highly educated who are most trusting.