Public Participation and Governance Performance in Gender-Imbalanced Central Rural China: The Roles of Trust and Risk Perception

The study investigates the impact of public participation on governance performance in a risk society. A trust-based participatory paradigm is proposed as a viable framework. Using data from a 2018 survey of family planning services in Hubei, China, this study develops hypotheses drawn from causal mechanisms of participatory governance. A structural equation modeling (SEM) approach is employed to disentangle the direct effect of public participation on governance performance from its indirect effect through trust. Moderated multiple regressions (MMR) are conducted to identify the moderating effect of risk perception. The results indicate that public participation is associated with higher perceived quality of family planning services and decreases son preference through the serial mediation effects of trust and perceived quality. Risk perception of gender imbalance magnifies the positive effect of civic autonomy on perceived quality. This paper extends previous research on the governance of gender imbalance and contributes to the literature on the relationship between public participation, trust, risk perception, and governance performance in authoritarian countries.