什么是好政府--东亚民众如何评价政府的正当性与能力

What is Good Government--East Asian People's Evaluation of Government Legitimacy and Competence

一个“好政府”,应当同时满足正当性和有效性两个条件。正当性定义为民主性与为民性一一在价值和规范意义上,为政治共同体即人民的利益存在和运行的政府即为正当的政府。正当性在民众的心目中表现为政府和政治的民主性与民主程度。因此,民众对本国政治和政府体制是否民主、对本国民主政治的满意程度即体现了民众对政府正当性的认可。政府的有效性则可以通过政府在提供公共服务、保障法治、回应民众需求、反腐倡廉等领域来体现和测量。东亚若干国家的调查问卷数据,显示了东亚各国居民对本国、本地区政府的正当性与有效性的评价。这些数据即反映了这些国家民众对本国政府的“好”与“坏”或“好”与“差”的评价。

I propose a theory of good government in this paper.That is,a good government must be both legitimate and competent.Legitimacy mostly depends on the government's commitment to serve the public's interest-a government that is built and run to serve the interest of the political community obtains legitimacy.In the contemporary world,this can be measured by the public's evaluation of the degree of democracy or“democraticness”of the government.Competence,on the other hand,refers to government effectiveness in providing public services,law enforcement,responding to the public's demand,curbing corruption,and others.Empirically,I use the latest Asian Barometer Survey to show how people of East Asian countries evaluate the legitimacy and competence of their government,and arrive at a full picture of“good government”as found in East Asia.