How Does Rural Public Service Provision Enhance Villagers' Public Participation? An Explanation Based on an SOR Theory

Rural areas are pivotal to a nation's overall development and well-being, and fostering villagers' proactive behavior is essential for achieving sustainable development in rural communities. Enhancing villagers' political participation is critical to improving the efficiency of rural grassroots governance and to accelerating rural development, as the quality, ability, and enthusiasm for engaging in public affairs directly determine the quality of governance. However, villagers often exhibit a weak awareness of participation, an insufficient ability for participation, and limited effectiveness of participation. Consequently, fully leveraging the primary role of farmers and enhancing their participation enthusiasm have become shared concerns among scholars and governments.

This study explores strategies to promote villagers' political participation in China, given its critical role in rural governance, We examine how improving rural the provision of public services enhances villagers' political participation through two pathways: satisfaction with village cadres and political trust. Based on a moderated mediation framework, we argue that subjective poverty risks and perceived social justice serve as moderators for both pathways.

The survey results from 1718 villagers across cross-regional rural areas in China reveal the following: (1) Improvements in the provision of rural public service positively influence the political participation of villagers. (2) Satisfaction with village cadres mediates the relationship between improvements in the provision of public services and villagers' political participation. (3) Political trust mediates the relationship between improvements in the provision of public services and villagers' political participation. (4) Subjective poverty risks moderate the mediating effects of satisfaction and political trust on the relationship between improvements in the provision of public services and political participation, respectively. Higher levels of subjective poverty risks strengthen these two mediated relationships. (5) Perceptions of social justice moderate the mediating effects of satisfaction and political trust on the relationship between improvements in the provision of public services and political participation, respectively. Higher levels of perceived social justice weaken the strength of these two mediated relationships.

This study highlights the impact of improvements in the provision of public services on villagers' political participation, a previously overlooked issue in research on political participation. By understanding how the provision of public services influences villagers' political participation, governments can strengthen rural governance and support rural revitalization efforts.