Does decentralisation lead to higher citizens' satisfaction with the public services that local governments provide? Despite arguments that decentralisation improves public service delivery, studies have not successfully verified the effects of decentralisation on citizen evaluations of local government services. Given the importance of increased local empowerment in promoting desired public goods, we examine whether the hypothesised advantages of decentralisation on public service delivery still hold when applied to citizens' satisfaction with public services. Specifically, we explore both the direct and indirect impacts of decentralisation on citizens' satisfaction through the mediating impact of the local management capacity in Korea. Based on structural equation modelling, the results indicate that decentralisation has a direct negative impact on public service satisfaction, but its impact is not mediated by local management capacity. Due to Korean citizens' lower expectations regarding decentralisation, citizens' satisfaction is not improved even when local management capacity is increased via higher decentralisation.

中文翻译：

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更好的服务交付，更满意的公民？韩国地方政府管理能力的中介效应

权力下放是否会提高公民对地方政府提供的公共服务的满意度？尽管有观点认为权力下放改善了公共服务提供，但研究并没有成功地验证权力下放对公民对地方政府服务评价的影响。鉴于增加地方赋权在促进所需公共产品方面的重要性，我们检验了在应用于公民对公共服务的满意度时，公共服务提供的分权的假设优势是否仍然成立。具体而言，我们通过韩国地方管理能力的中介影响来探讨权力下放对公民满意度的直接和间接影响。基于结构方程模型，结果表明，权力下放对公共服务满意度有直接的负面影响，但其影响不受地方管理能力的调节。由于韩国公民对分权的期望较低，即使通过更高的分权提高地方管理能力，公民的满意度也没有提高。