Citizens’ perception of corruption and transparency as determinants of public trust in local government in Ukraine

Abstract

Trust in government plays an essential role in ensuring the legitimacy and resilience of a country’s political system. The aim of this study is to examine the perceived levels of corruption and transparency as factors influencing trust in local government, as well as the relationships between them, by obtaining a statistical generalisation of the respondents’ (n=403) attitudes and opinions towards the local government of one of the recently formed amalgamated territorial communities in Ukraine. The regression-based bootstrapping approach was applied to test the conceptual model and hypotheses using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) 25.0 software. The results of the study demonstrate the complex nature of the relationship between the variables and highlight some important issues regarding the perception of transparency, the role it plays in curbing corruption and improving public confidence in local government, which provides a basis for further systematic research on this topic.