Public Administration Performance Data: The Case for Including Gratitude

There are various prima facie reasons for looking at the gratitude that citizens feel in response to government programs. Some relate to individual flourishing, others relate to moral virtue or social cohesion. We analyze survey data from 429 Australian participants (211 Indigenous and 218 non-Indigenous) in order to understand their levels of gratitude for the government support that is available to them. The data also allows us to consider their perceptions about the fairness, quality, and benevolence of government support. Such factors, according to our hypotheses, may be expected to moderate their levels of gratitude. In addition, the data enables us to see whether their levels of gratitude are associated with their levels of national pride, and whether their levels of national pride predict their levels of satisfaction with life. We find that non-Indigenous Australians are slightly more likely than Indigenous Australians to think that Australian government support is fair; Indigenous Australians, however, who perceive it as fair are more likely to be grateful for it. The fairness-gratitude relationship did not for hold non-Indigenous participants. Nonetheless, we predict that if more Indigenous Australians were to perceive Australian government support as fair, gratitude for it amongst Indigenous Australians would increase.