Civic Culture and Public Service Failure: An Empirical Exploration

Abstract

Civic-republican theories of democracy assume that increased levels of civic engagement lead to good government and better public services. This paper tests this assumption by analysing the impact of civic culture on the rate of failure in English public services between 2002 and 2004. The interdependence between failing services and measures of civic culture is modelled using local authority area data. The results show that low levels of political participation, an 'individualist' political culture, less interpersonal trust and scant associational life, lead to more cases of public service failure, even when controlling for a range of environmental constraints. The findings are discussed and conclusions drawn on the impact of civic culture on public service improvement.