Government performance, political trust, and citizen subjective well-being: evidence from rural China

Little is known about the political determinants of subjective well-being across nations. The objective of the study presented in this article is to single out the importance of a variety of determinants on the perceived quality of life in China, aiming, in particular, to understand the role and the importance of political conditions. Using individual level data from a survey conducted in Ya’an Municipality of Sichuan Province, our analysis shows that not only the personal situation and the local environment, but also the performance of one’s town/township government, as well as political trust are relevant for citizens’ subjective well-being. However, if political trust is important for satisfaction with life, this is predominantly an effect of trust in local government. In the Chinese context, our findings confirm that citizens’ quality of life is influenced by the legitimacy of the political order, conceived in terms of output-legitimacy, i.e., the perception of governmental performance.