Does government transparency really matter for citizens’ satisfaction to public service? Empirical evidence from China

This study utilises data from the 2017-2021 China Social Survey (CSS) to explore the impact of various forms of government transparency on public service satisfaction. The findings reveal that both subjective and objective government transparency have a significant positive effect on public service satisfaction, with a weaker effect of objective relative to subjective transparency. Furthermore, when objective government transparency is divided into three categories: decision-making transparency, policy content transparency, and policy outcome transparency, only policy content transparency demonstrates a positive impact on public service satisfaction. Further mediation analysis indicates that when trust in different levels of government is introduced as a mediator, only grassroots government trust mediates the relationship between objective government transparency and public service satisfaction. These findings contribute to a more profound understanding of the factors that contribute to public service satisfaction in China, providing an empirical basis for enhancing the quality of public services.