Editor's Note

Introduction

The quality of public services not only affects the quality of citizen lives, but also trust in institutions. It is particularly urgent in less developed new democracies to develop human capital, establish public infrastructure, and enhance the quality of public services to increase the quality of life, and these have emerged as critical challenges when it comes to assessing local governance (Lim, 2010). In Myanmar, even before the transfer of power, the transfer of responsibility for providing public services and making effective improvements were seen as vital tasks (Myanmar Times 2014).

Using the survey results of the 2019 MDRN Survey, this paper assesses the trust in political institutions in Myanmar and how citizens perceive the importance and performance of 14 core duties/responsibilities that the Yangon City Development Committee (YCDC) has. This paper aims to review the correlation between the current assessments of YCDC policies and the level of trust in YCDC using Importance-Performance Analysis.

Table of Contents

This paper is organized in five parts as follows:

1. Introduction

2. Myanmar/Yangon Governance Assessment: Trust in Institutions

3. Analyzing the Current Duties and Responsibilities of YCDC Using IPA

4. Evaluation of and Trust in YCDC

5. YCDC: What Should the Next Step Be?

Author

Hanwool Jeong is a Senior Research Fellow and Research Designer at Hankook Research in South Korea. He received his Ph.D. in political science from Korea University, and was the executive director at the Center for Public Opinion Research at the East Asia Institute until 2015. His recent publications include “The Corruption Scandal and Vote Switching in South Korea’s 19^th Presidential Election” (2019), “Generation as Group Identity and its Political Effect” (2018), “Rising Swing Conservatives in South Korea: The Causes and Results” (2017) and “National Identity Change in South Korea: The Rise of Two Nations and Two State Identities” (2017).

Younghyun Lee is a research associate and project manager at the East Asia Institute (EAI). She is currently managing the program “Strengthening Civil Society Organizations in Myanmar.” She received her B.A. in French literature and international studies and her M.A. in political science from Korea University. Her recent publications include “Divergent Paths of Integration in the Post-Multicultural Era: Interculturalism in Spain and Civic Integration in France” (2019).

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