数字政府与腐败控制:一种条件过程分析

E-government and Corruption Control:An Analysis on Conditional Process

数字政府建设对腐败控制的影响,日益受到公共管理学界的关注。然而,对于数字政府建设究竟如何作用于腐败控制,这些作用过程又是否存在情境差异性,却仍然缺乏深入的实证探索。基于158个国家2002~2017年的数据,本研究采用一种整合了中介分析和调节分析的方法,即条件过程分析方法,来揭示数字政府建设对腐败控制的影响机制及其边界条件。结果表明,公民问责水平在数字政府建设与腐败控制程度之间起到中介作用,但这一中介过程会受到信息基础设施和人力资本水平的调节。具体而言,随着信息基础设施的完善、人力资本水平的提升,以公民问责水平为中介的间接效应会大大强化,进而成为数字政府建设反腐败效应的主要实现机制;而当两者都比较欠缺时,数字政府建设反而会抑制公民问责水平,进而削弱其反腐败效应。研究结果支持了一种权变观点,即数字政府的治理绩效取决于其与组织环境的匹配和互动;同时也强调,推动数字政府建设必须协同完善其实施环境,否则可能产生政府与社会之间的“数字鸿沟”,进而阻碍反腐败目标的实现。

The impact of E-government construction on corruption control has been attracting the attention among the researchers on public management.However,few in-depths and empirical studies have explored on how E-government construction influences corruption control and on whether this process shows contextual variability.Based on the data from 158 countries during the period from 2002 to 2017,this study adopts a new method called conditional process analysis,which combines mediation and moderation analysis,to reveal the potential mechanism and their conditions.Research results indicate that public accountability plays a mediating role between E-government and corruption control,while this indirect effect is likely to be moderated by the levels of information infrastructure and human capital.To be more specific,with the improvement of information infrastructure and human capital,the indirect effect of the public accountability as the mediating role is expected to be greatly intensified,which contributes a lot in forming the machanism of the anti-corruption performance of E-government.The anti-corruption performance of E-government tends to be weakened as the lack of information infrastructure and human capital may inhibit the positive impact of E-government on public accountability.This research supports a contingency view of information technology,arguing that the actual governing effect of E-government depends on the compatibility between technology utilization and organizational environment,and suggesting that E-government should co-develop with its environment,so as to avoid the“digital gap”between the governments and the society.