Perceived public service performance, trust in the government, and citizens' willingness to participate: Evidence from water governance in Visakhapatnam, India

Institutions are pivotal in ensuring effective public service delivery and enhancing public welfare by allocating various resources. Citizens' trust in institutions is a barometer of those institutions' legitimacy (Bradford et al., 2015). Nonetheless, there is a complex and interconnected relationship between the quality of essential services, the effectiveness of institutions, citizens' trust, and individual experiences with service delivery. Citizens' trust in institutions is influenced by their direct experiences with service delivery, i.e., a better perception of service delivery leads to higher levels of trust in the government (Donovan & Bowler, 2004; OECD, 2013). Water systems are such visible institutions of influence that play a crucial role in determining citizens' trust in the government.

Political institutions actively encourage citizen participation through public hearings, community forums, and participatory decision-making processes to maintain legitimacy and foster trust (Kim, 2010; Bondelind et al., 2019). However, willingness to participate actively in decision-making processes related to service delivery is influenced a lot by trust in institutions (Voogd et al., 2021). Citizens' participation and trust are mutually reinforcing (Putnam, 2000), i.e., without citizens' trust in the government, there would be no formal participation, and without citizen participation, the performance will remain poor and trust in the government will continue to decline to form a cycle of poor service delivery (Brixi et al., 2015). Thus, public understanding of water systems is crucial in addressing infrastructure and governance challenges.

Citizen perception surveys have been a common and valuable tool for understanding public opinions and levels of trust in political institutions across geographies. Investigating citizens' trust in local governments has been the research focus for many scholars (Levi & Stoker, 2000; Grimmelikhuijsen, 2010). However, such research has been mostly limited to Western geographies, especially water governance (Voogd et al., 2021). The scarcity of water infrastructure in global south countries like India is altering citizens' interaction with the state, their perceptions of the public service delivery performance, their trust in the government, and their interest in participating in decision-making processes. This paper empirically investigates citizens' perceptions of water service delivery performance, trust in water managers, and willingness to participate in water governance in the Indian city of Visakhapatnam. First, we provide the literature review followed by an overview of the research methods and empirical findings. Finally, we share our insights from the findings, discuss the limitations and future scope, and provide the concluding remarks.

Through concepts like insurgent citizenship (Holston, 2011) and hydraulic citizenship (Anand, 2017), scholars have brought to limelight the expanding understanding of citizenship beyond legal and formal definitions. Similarly, Cornwall & Gaventa (2000) conceptualize citizenship as a dynamic process involving rights, responsibilities, and participation in shaping collective decisions and societal structures. Under the backdrop of invigorating citizenship concept, we attempt to comprehend the intricate dynamics of the relationship between citizens and the state, where three recurring and crucial themes consistently emerge – trust in the government, citizens' perceived performance of public services, and the active participation of citizens in governance processes. These elements collectively form the crux of understanding how individuals interact with and perceive the institutions that wield governmental power.

Trust is conceptually complex and trust in the government further depends on the cultural and spatial context, making it difficult to establish a universal definition of trust. Trust facilitates and fosters positive interactions and relationships between the state and its citizens. The decline of trust in the government can have far-reaching consequences, affecting how citizens perceive, comply with, and interact with the institutions that wield power in a democratic society (OECD, 2005, p. 31). Often, scholars have used public confidence in the government and trust interchangeably but some scholars have differentiated the two based on attributes and expectations. According to Luhmann (2000), the lack of confidence and the need for trust may form a vicious circle; however, the relation between the two is not a simple zero-sum game.

Scholars have identified several factors that contribute to determining public trust from citizen perception of economic and political performance (Mishler & Rose, 2001; Donovan & Bowler, 2004), institutional and political landscape, and citizen–state relationship (Bouckaert et al., 2005) to changing values of citizens (Norris, 1999). Several theories, from social capital and government overload to cultural expectations, paid attention to the concept of trust. These theories helped understand the consequences of a lack of trust in a democratic society (Van de Walle et al., 2002).

Blind (2007) identifies two notable variants of trust, which are social and political trust that share a reciprocal relationship. Political trust is a citizen's sentiment about the responsiveness and integrity of the political system and its incumbents. Social trust can be understood as the degree to which individuals within the community or society have confidence in one another. The ‘institutional trust’ is another category of trust largely found in the literature of social and cultural theories, which emphasize the importance of social trust and the political socialization in shaping an individual's trust in a political system. As a contrasting claim, institutional theories suggest that institutional trust is closely tied to those institutions' performance (North, 1990; Newton & Norris, 2000) and behavior (Bouckaert & Van de Walle, 2003). Abundant empirical work has established a connection between trust and public service performance satisfaction (Van Ryzin, 2007). The idea that improved performance in public services can contribute to increased trust in the government is a perspective supported by several theorists, including Yang & Holzer (2006), Christensen & Laegreid (2005), and Uslaner (2002). In contrast, the theorists suggest that distrust in the government is often linked to poor performance by public institutions. According to Yang & Holzer (2006), citizens also evaluate government performance based on the efficacy and fairness of government policies, as well as the ethical conduct of the government.

Citizens expect governments to provide essential services efficiently and effectively. When there are shortcomings in service delivery, such as inadequate infrastructure or unfair distribution of resources (Berman, 1997), it could lead to dissatisfaction, contributing to citizen disengagement. This could be attributed mainly to their perception of the government as lacking transparency, inclusivity, effective communication, or platforms that could create feedback opportunities, further limiting access to government officials (Wang, 2001). Like the concept of trust, citizen participation also has diverse definitions, conceptualizations, and purposes within governance. Citizen participation can involve citizens in administrative decisions (Yang & Callahan, 2005), resource allocation, and policy processes (Franklin et al., 2009), each contributing to different aspects of democratic governance. It can be seen as a mechanism not only for ensuring responsiveness but also for aligning decisions with the values and priorities of the community.

Local governments often establish formal mechanisms for citizen participation. These formal mechanisms are structured, organized systems or processes set up by the local government in response to state laws, attitudes, and mandates (Berner & Smith, 2004). Citizen advisory committees are usually cited as the common formal mechanism at the local level, which is crucial in advising local government officials (Callahan, 2002). However, representative participation due to citizens' unwillingness to participate in such formal mechanisms can pose difficulties in ensuring diverse and inclusive citizen engagement, questioning the effectiveness of these formal mechanisms. Informal mechanisms, such as citizen surveys, are advocated as alternative approaches to capturing citizens' perceptions and conveying their voices to public managers (Hassett & Watson, 2003; Swindell & Kelly, 2005). Citizens' participation is the cornerstone of democratic governance and effective democratic citizenship, providing benefits beyond the government itself (Thomas, 1995; Berner & Smith, 2004), helping substantiate the decision-making process through local knowledge, making government organizations more open and transparent (Innes & Booher, 2004; Fung, 2006; Kweit & Kweit, 2007). Many governments worldwide have initiated citizen perception surveys that covers people's opinions of government services' effectiveness, efficiency, responsiveness, and quality (Vigoda, 2003) at regular intervals as a common strategy to understand about public service delivery. Thus, citizens' experiences, perceptions, and interactions with public service delivery mechanisms determine public service performance that holds the government accountable and responsive to citizens' needs. Simultaneously, citizens' perception of their importance and influence in decision-making also affects trust in the government.

There is a complex link between trust and citizen participation. Higher levels of trust are associated with increased citizen participation, while lower trust can lead to disillusionment and apathy, impacting citizens' willingness to voice concerns toward public officials (Müller, 2013). The declining trust has been a concern of many scholars, leading to the declining political participation of citizens (Norris, 1999). Based on this research, Levi & Stoker (2000) found two incompatible claims about how trust influences participation. The first is that trust in the government must encourage participation, and the contrasting second claim is that the decline in trust should result in more participation in the form of political involvement. Hibbing & Theiss-Morse (2005) see trust in the government as inversely associated with citizen participation. Scholars like Kikuchi (2007) and Neblo et al. (2010) believe trustworthy governments encourage citizens to participate.

Trust dynamics evolve over time and vary based on the context (Bauer & Freitag, 2018). Some scholars (Kim, 2010) argue that variables like age (Christensen & Laegreid, 2005; Mahmud, 2021), gender (Kim, 2010; Gozgor, 2021), education (Norris, 1999), income (Price, 2012), and occupation (Christensen et al., 2019) significantly shape levels of trust, and particularly institutional trust (Christensen & Laegreid, 2005). The findings of the existing literature on the relationship between demographic variables and institutional trust are inconclusive. The intricate web of trust, perceived public service performance, and citizen participation weaves a tapestry that profoundly influences the functioning of democratic societies. Notably, there is a scarcity of literature addressing the interplay among all three variables simultaneously. Moreover, the existing research tends to adopt a rather simplistic and linear perspective when examining the relationships among these variables. Therefore, in this paper, we introduce the idea of a circular pattern, suggesting that the three variables are interconnected.

The broader research question we are dealing with here is how citizens' perceived performance of water service delivery, trust in water managers, and willingness to participate in decision-making are intertwined within urban water governance. Based on the review of the literature, we derive three hypotheses.

• 1. Hypothesis (H1) – Citizens' perceived performance of the existing water service delivery (i.e., water managers' performance, health risk associated with water, water quality, adequacy of water quantity) is not associated with citizens' trust in the public water managers.

• 2. Hypothesis (H2) – Citizens' perceived performance of the existing water service delivery is not correlated to citizen's willingness to participate in the decision-making process.

• 3. Hypothesis (H3) – Citizens' trust in water managers is unrelated to citizens' willingness to participate in the water-related decision-making process.

In this article, we limit our focus to trust in the government and do not intend to address public confidence or the relationship between trust and confidence. Also, we conceptualize trust as institutional trust wherein the citizens place their trust in the institutions involved in water governance. In this context, the water managers in Visakhapatnam are the Town Planning Department, the Engineering Department, the Public Works Department of the Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC), the Greater Visakhapatnam Smart City Corporation Limited (GVSCCL), and in some cases the Visakhapatnam Metropolitan Regional Development Authority (VMRDA). We understand trust is relational, unconditional, and judgmental, indicating a connection or association between the trustor (the one placing trust), i.e., citizens, and the trustee (the entity or individual being trusted), i.e., the water managers. While trust may be influenced by various significant factors like corruption, transparency, and fairness, our focus remains specifically on institutional trust related to the perception of service delivery. Trust judgments are not passive assessments but rather active, dynamic, and subjective processes, which serve as catalysts to inspire action where individuals actively engage in forming judgments about the trustworthiness of an entity. Uslaner (2006) provides insights into the multidimensional nature of trust by highlighting the distinction between moralistic trust and strategic trust, where the former emphasizes the fundamental act of extending trust without any expectations of instrumental gains, while the latter involves placing trust with anticipation of certain actions and outcomes based on calculations of self-interest and mutual benefits. Here, we are focusing on the trust judgments of citizens through their beliefs of the trustworthiness of the water managers by specifically engaging in citizens' strategic trust. There is also flexibility in assessing trust where it can be operationalized dichotomously (i.e., in a binary manner), which is trust and distrust, as well as gradation evaluation (i.e., in the continuum/scale), which is the scale on trustworthiness. We use the graduation evaluation of trust in the government using a 3-point Likert scale of trustworthiness in the government.

Citizens' participation is a multifaceted concept and encompasses various activities (including but not limited to community meetings and other such formal activities), outcomes depending on the context, and goals (including but not limited to increased awareness, policy changes, community development, and enhancing perception of public service delivery), contexts (cultural, political, social, and economic), and situations (specific events that capture public attentions). Langton (1988) categorizes citizen participation into four types, i.e., citizen action and interaction with the government to express their grievances through petitions (formally submitting requests, or demands to the government) or protests (public demonstrations, marches, or other forms of collective actions to express dissatisfaction); citizen involving in municipal government participation mechanism such as public hearing or satisfaction or opinion surveys; electoral participation through voting or attending party activities; and obligatory participation that is related to financial obligations such as tax payments. We limit our focus to citizens' willingness to participate in the civic processes within the municipal government level in various activities related to water governance through public meetings and hearings, any citizen advisory committees or task forces, suggestion boxes, online platforms, surveys, community initiatives, local events or neighborhood activities initiated by the municipal government, volunteering in any municipal government-sponsored project, awareness programs, etc., organized by the various water managers as stated above at Visakhapatnam. We measure the willingness to participate on a 3-point Likert scale.

Perception is a cognitive link between individuals and their environment, influencing human behavior (Efron, 1969). Understanding perceptions is critical to policy practitioners as it offers detailed insights into human behavior concerning the public services provided by the government. This understanding can better inform policies and services' design, implementation, and evaluation. We understand public services as activities crucial to the collective good, making it an obligation for those in institutions of authority to provide them without interruption (Duguit, 1923). However, there is a shift that has been observed in the nature and role of public services, where there is a gradual transition from more active provision to a supporting role facilitating the initiatives of the private sector, which are influenced by the neoliberal market principles (McDonald & Ruiters, 2012). Therefore, in this paper, we refer to water managers as anybody engaged in providing water services to the citizens of Visakhapatnam.

In operationalizing perception, we developed a perception index, which is an attempt to create a composite measure that consolidates multiple dimensions of citizens' perceptions related to water service delivery in Visakhapatnam, including their perspectives regarding the performance of their water managers, as well as health risk associated to water, its quality, and adequacy of the water supply. The methodology for querying these aspects is detailed in Table 1. The construction of the index involves ensuring a uniform scale and direction across the four key questions. The local government performance scale was transformed from a 3-point Likert scale to a dichotomous variable by consolidating neutral responses with positive ones. The index is then formulated by aggregating all responses and generating a composite score.

Visakhapatnam, situated in South India, ranks as the fourth largest city in the region and is the second largest city on India's eastern coastline, following Chennai. The GVMC is Andhra Pradesh's largest agglomeration, with a population of 1,728,128 in 2011 (Rao, 2020 2011). The Visakhapatnam municipality, which was constituted in 1858, attained the status of a municipal corporation in 1979, and then in November 2005, the Government of Andhra Pradesh released a Government Order through which GVMC came into existence as a municipality, and some villages were included in the municipal corporation. The city's administrative organization spans 98 distinct wards spread across eight zones. Visakhapatnam is the fastest-growing city in India, with service delivery under immense pressure to ensure better outcomes and equitable growth. However, the progress is marred by notable challenges like insufficient water infrastructure, impacting around 600,000 inhabitants in slum areas. There are about 201,817 tap connections under the purview of the GVMC, which is only 54% coverage as opposed to the 100% benchmark per the Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD) performance indicators for piped water supply. The overall demand for the city's water supply is 375,000 m³/d, whereas the supply is only 291,000 m³/d with an 88 per capita water supply daily.

The sampling technique used for the study is multistage stratified random sampling. A stratified approach ensured a comprehensive and accurate representation of the people across diverse socioeconomic and spatial contexts. The sampling technique consisted of three distinct phases. The first stage involved taking the city's new administrative zones and wards. The second stage meticulously assessed the developed land use areas within these administrative zones and wards. This assessment formed the basis for determining the proportionate allocation of samples from each land use category, which predominantly comprised industrial, commercial, residential, recreational, and mixed areas. For the third stage, socioeconomic attributes were employed as the stratification criteria. These attributes encompass gender, religion, caste, and class. Using data from the 2011 Census facilitated the determination of sample sizes for each socioeconomic characteristic, thus ensuring a balanced representation across strata.

In the case of informal settlements, a similar stratified random sampling technique was used. The various strata included zone and ward designations, land classification (government, private, or endowment), eligibility status for official notification, and total household counts categorized into ranges. The data from the GVMC Sustainable Research Unit (SRU) regarding the profiles of various clusters was utilized to identify the settlements. Among the 789 identified slums in Visakhapatnam, 538 were within municipal corporation boundaries from which the sample populations were selected. This process unfolded in three sequential steps. First, slums were classified based on land ownership (government, private, endowment, and village) and notification status (whether the settlement is notified or non-notified). Subsequently, the slums were stratified based on the number of households, organized into ranges. Finally, random selection was employed within zones and wards, ensuring fair representation across the selected criteria. Careful consideration was given to this selection process to ensure the inclusion of a diverse set of slums, enabling meaningful comparisons within each zone and ward while considering land ownership and notification status. Ultimately, a total of 17 slums were chosen through this meticulous procedure.

As per the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) definition of a household, a household is based on the arrangement made by persons, individually or in groups, for providing themselves with food or other essentials for living. A household may be either a one-person household, i.e., a person who provides for food or other essentials, or a multipurpose household, i.e., a group of two or more persons living together who make common provisions for food and other essentials for living. The sampling frame for the study is the total number of households, the total number of slums, and the number of households in the slums. For this paper, the households with a municipal water connection within their dwelling unit or households relying on a municipal water connection have been selected from the total sample households surveyed. At the time of the survey, within a street, if on both sides there are residences, not more than two households were selected. Depending on the elevation of the street, one household was selected from the beginning of the slope and the other at the end of the slope. The adjacent and opposite households were strictly avoided during the surveys to ensure proper representation from the street. Within the household, anyone who was a user and was above the age of 15 years at the time of the survey and who expressed willingness and consent to partake in the survey was qualified as a respondent for the survey.

Factors such as the anticipated effect size, estimated measurement variability, significance level for hypothesis testing, statistical power, and whether the hypothesis is one-tailed or two-tailed play a significant role in determining the appropriate sample size. To achieve a 95% confidence level, an effect size of 10% (0.10) has been established, alongside a statistical power of 0.049 and a significance criterion of 5%. In the context of multistage stratified random sampling, determining the sample size becomes intricate due to the hierarchical structure of the design. Consequently, arriving at an accurate sample size estimation necessitates a detailed analysis. Based on these considerations, the sample estimate for the population mean is 494, with a corresponding standard error of 1,508.40.

We have taken descriptive summary statistics of all the variables, which include examining frequencies and multivariate frequency distributions (which involve tabulating two or more variables) of the data. However, we present the frequencies of the main variables (perceptions of water service delivery, trust in water managers, and willingness to participate in decision-making) and examine their relationship with socioeconomic demographic variables through cross-tabulation. This allows us to briefly investigate the diverse levels of perceived performance, trust, and willingness to participate within the various subgroups. Inferential statistics are employed, including hypothesis testing and the chi-square test of association, to discern relationships between categorical variables by comparing observed and expected frequencies and assessing the significance of associations through p-values along with Spearman's rank correlation. The t-test is utilized as the primary analytical tool to ascertain the significance of the correlation coefficient, determining whether the observed coefficient significantly differs from zero and thereby confirming a meaningful association between the variables. We aimed at comprehending the relationship between the variables rather than establishing causality between them. So we initially considered ordinal regression analysis, substantial multicollinearity, and numerous confounding variables, we concluded that regression may not be the most appropriate approach to elucidate the relationship, leading to inflated standard errors and misinterpretation of the regression coefficients. Given that the perception index encompasses various dimensions, such as assessments of water service delivery, perceived health risks, water quality, adequacy of water supply, trust in water managers, and willingness to participate in decision-making, the interrelationships among these factors may introduce multicollinearity challenges. The intricate nature of these interdependencies may hinder the accurate identification and interpretation of the individual contributions of each predictor to the ordinal regression model, thereby limiting the precision and reliability of the analytical results. Furthermore, our aim is not to ascertain whether alterations in water service provision directly influence trust levels, as water connections cannot be subjected to the control and treatment group framework typically used in such analyses.

Table 2 reveals gender variation where males exhibit a slightly higher tendency toward positively perceiving water service delivery performance, a slight percentage gap in their trust in decision-makers, and willingness to participate across the other variables similar to studies by Kim (2010) and Gozgor (2021). Contradicting Mahmud (2021) and Christensen & Laegreid (2005) who suggested that older individuals tend to trust the government more in our sample, those aged above 65 years express the most negative perceptions about water service delivery, trust in the government, and reluctance to participate in decision-making. Our findings on education echo the assertion of Bouckaert & Van de Walle (2001) that higher education correlates with greater trust in the government. Our illiterates sample perceives water service delivery negatively, which reflects in their trust in the government and willingness to participate, which is the lowest of all. Households with income range of INR 1–3 lakhs demonstrate the most positive perceptions and trust levels, consistent with Price's (2012) findings. Of the religious groups, Muslims generally hold more positive perceptions of water service delivery than Hindus and Christians; however, they find the government untrustworthy more than Hindus and Christians while they still express more willingness to participate in water governance. Among castes, Other Backward Caste respondents exhibited a negative perception of the water service delivery performance, which was also reflected in their willingness to participate.

From Table 3, the two-sided asymptotic significance values are less than the benchmark value 0.05. This shows that the Pearson chi-square values are statistically significant. The chi-square test of independence asserts the null hypothesis that there is no association between the two underlying categorical variables. The significance tests in Table 1 imply that since the significance value is less than 0.05, we would reject the null hypothesis, thus establishing that the two variables under consideration are associated. Table 1 infers a statistically significant relationship between perceived water service delivery performance, trust in water managers, and citizens' willingness to participate in decision-making. However, the Pearson chi-square tests for independence only establish the existence of the association between the two categorical variables. To determine the degree and direction of the association between the two variables, the nonparametric correlations by Spearman's rank correlation coefficient matrix analysis and t-test are employed to check the statistical significance of the correlations.

Table 4 shows the nonparametric correlation matrix. The highlighted cells show statistically significant correlation values between the two ordinal values.

The perception index has a statistically significant correlation between citizens' trust in the water service delivery and citizens' willingness to participate in decision-making process. Citizens' trust in the water service delivery has a weak positive correlation with the perception index. This implies that as the citizen's trust in the water supply improves, their perception index improves. In contrast, the perception index negatively correlates with the citizen's willingness to participate in the decision-making process. Thus, as the perception index improves, the citizens' willingness to participate declines.

The following inferences are drawn from the analysis for the study's hypothesis.

• Hypothesis (H1) – The Pearson chi-square test of independence establishes the relationship between the citizens' perception of water service delivery and citizens' trust in public water managers. The correlation between the two is weak, positive, and statistically significant, as per the t-test significance testing. Thus, the significance test implies that Hypothesis 1 is rejected. This signifies that citizens' perceived water service delivery positively affects their trust in public water managers.

• Hypothesis (H2) – The Pearson chi-square test of independence establishes the relationship between the citizens' perception of water service delivery performance and citizens' willingness to participate in water governance and decision-making process. The correlation between the two is weak, negative, and statistically significant, as per the t-test significance testing. Thus, the significance test implies that Hypothesis 2 is rejected. This signifies that the citizen's perception of water service delivery negatively affects the citizens' willingness to participate in water governance.

• Hypothesis (H3) – The Pearson chi-square test of independence establishes the relationship between the citizens' trust in water managers and citizens' willingness to participate in water governance. The correlation between the two is weak, positive, and statistically significant, per the t-test significance testing. Thus, the significance test implies that Hypothesis 3 is rejected. This signifies that the citizens' trust in the water managers positively affects their willingness to participate in water governance.

The findings of this study offer substantial backing for the hypotheses posited herein, suggesting a strong correlation between perceived water service delivery performance and their trust in water managers. This finding is in accordance with Van Ryzin (2007), who shares that positive citizen perception can be a predictive factor for placing trust in the government. Studying citizen perceptions in water research is crucial for understanding public attitudes toward water services and the performance of water managers. Previous research has delved into how public trust influences individual water use behaviors (Lafuente et al., 2018; Zhen et al., 2019) and examined its broader impact on policies like water conservation (Jones et al., 2011) and recycled water usage (Distler et al., 2020). Trust in water services has been explored through various factors (Voogd et al., 2021), often focusing on specific elements such as water quality, decisions made by water utilities, or trust in particular individuals or organizations. In our study, we seek to differentiate between perceptions of water infrastructure and services and the trust levels in water managers. This separation of perception and trust has allowed us to identify specific areas of attention – whether enhancing perceptions of water infrastructure or services or investigating factors influencing trust in water managers.

Service delivery performance in the Middle East and North Africa significantly shapes citizens' perceptions of the state and their actions in dealing with it. Similarly, studies conducted in the Pacific Islands acknowledge a positive link between improvements in governance and increase in trust; however, governance quality and trust levels vary based on local contexts and cultural norms (Rowen & Finin, 2010). Subpar service quality can lead to perceptions of government corruption and ineffectiveness, eroding trust in public institutions. This often prompts citizens to resort to alternative coping strategies, such as turning to informal social networks and paying informal fees to address their individual needs (Brixi et al., 2015).

While our study asserts a positive association between citizens' perception of water infrastructure and services and their trust in water managers, the findings reveal a weak connection. This aligns with the idea that trust alone does not solely determine good governance, but there are many other factors unrelated to government–citizen interaction that may be associated with and could influence this relationship, as highlighted by Bouckaert & Van de Walle (2003). Furthermore, our study suggests that individuals with positive views about water infrastructure and service quality may show reluctance to participate in decision-making actively. While substantial empirical evidence establishes the positive impact of citizen participation on their perceptions of public service performance, limited research explores the inverse relationship. This paper aims to address this gap by demonstrating that the connection between perception and participation lies not in the sense that participation enhances perception but rather that an improved perception increases citizens' unwillingness to participate. In addition, existing research often conflates willingness to participate and citizen participation without differentiation.

To enhance citizen participation effectively, it is crucial to understand whether citizens are willing to engage in the first place. This research stands out by examining the willingness to participate, an aspect frequently overlooked in studies on citizen participation. However, this dynamic undergoes a notable shift when trust in water managers is established, as individuals are inclined to express their willingness to participate in decision-making activities. The outcomes of our hypothesis align with Müller's (2013) conclusions, indicating that elevated levels of trust correlate with heightened citizen participation, whereas diminished trust may result in disillusionment and apathy, affecting citizens' inclination to express concerns to public officials. Unlike Hibbing & Theiss-Morse (2005), our findings suggest a positive correlation between trust and participation.

In theory, it is more logically conceivable that favorable perceptions of water service delivery are linked to trust in water managers. Moreover, having trust in water managers is associated with a propensity to participate in decision-making related to water activities, while positive perceptions of water service delivery are linked to an unwillingness to participate. Our rationale behind these correlations is that they collectively form a circular pattern with no specific sequence in it, reinforcing the intricate interplay between perceptions, trust, and participation in the context of water-related citizenry. In the context of the circular pattern, the relationship between citizens' participation and trust is characterized by mutual reinforcement, as highlighted by Putnam (2000). This means that the presence of citizens' trust in the government is a prerequisite for formal participation to occur. Conversely, in the absence of citizen participation, the performance of public services is likely to suffer, contributing to a decline in trust in the government. This interconnectedness creates a cyclical dynamic where poor service delivery, as emphasized by Brixi et al. (2015), becomes part of a self-perpetuating cycle – citizens' distrust leads to limited participation, resulting in suboptimal service performance, further eroding trust. Understanding and addressing this intricate relationship are essential for breaking the cycle of poor service delivery and fostering a more positive and constructive citizen–government dynamic.

We have conducted a multivariate frequency analysis involving socioeconomic factors such as income, education, age, gender, caste, and religion, among others, alongside the primary variables like trust, participation, and perception; however, this could be further investigated by delving deeper into each result from the multivariate frequency distribution and the primary variables. Given the inconclusive evidence in existing literature on demographic factors' link with primary variables, the socioeconomic variables' interaction requires much wider analysis.

Though we acknowledge the difference between ‘confidence’ and ‘trust’, we have not delved into ‘confidence’ conceptually and empirically. Thus, future research could take into account the differences and the link among the variables like perceived performance, trust in water managers, and citizens' willingness to engage in water governance.

Our findings, derived from a specific city with a unique sociocultural, political, and governance context, may not universally apply to other Indian cities. Furthermore, this paper only addresses institutional trust, neglecting other trust types. Qualitative aspects of these variables as well, left unexplored, could offer a deeper understanding of the hypothesis. This research can potentially contribute to nuanced comprehension of state–citizen dynamics significantly.

It would also be useful to investigate alternative explanations of trust tied to broader political aspects that are equally important recurring themes, which we have not engaged in this paper, like corruption, economic growth, transparency, and fairness, and their relation to variables like citizens' participation and perceived service delivery performance.

A comprehensive understanding of the factors influencing water-related decision-making can be another dimension to take the research further. Future studies should critically assess the utilitarian approach, emphasizing citizen satisfaction for a more holistic understanding of the intricate interplay between citizens and governing institutions.

In conclusion, we contend that our results hold significant relevance for both policy practitioners and researchers. While the three variables under consideration have been extensively studied, the approach taken in this paper provides a unique and novel contribution to existing scholarship. Investigating the connections among perceived water service delivery, trust in water managers, and citizens' willingness to participate has revealed an interconnected circular pattern among these three variables. This has effectively bridged the gap, offering a holistic perspective that prevents isolating each variable and promotes a more comprehensive approach rather than exclusively focusing on individual elements. Utilizing a perception index for water infrastructure and services contributes to a more nuanced examination of trust, introducing a level of complexity that enhances our understanding of the dynamics involved. This approach allows us to go beyond simplistic analyses and provide a more thorough insight into the multifaceted nature of trust in water management. Examining willingness to participate adds layers to our comprehension of citizen involvement in public service delivery, particularly within water services. Investigating willingness to participate provides a more nuanced and comprehensive view, facilitating a deeper exploration of citizens' roles in shaping the governance landscape. Delving deeper into the concerns highlighted in the limitations and scope of the study holds the potential to yield additional insights, paving the way for concrete policy strategies and actionable measures that the government can implement to enhance water governance in the city of Visakhapatnam. In guiding future studies' development, the present research's central findings stand poised to offer substantial assistance. Furthermore, we anticipate that these findings will be instrumental for water managers, providing them with a nuanced understanding of public trust levels. This understanding can serve as a pivotal basis for devising strategies to fortify and enhance trust, thereby contributing to more effective and responsive water management practices and further strengthening the citizen–state relationship.

Data cannot be made publicly available; readers should contact the corresponding author for details.

The authors declare there is no conflict.