本文利用一項電話民意調查數據，檢視當前香港政府的政策表現與其認受性的關係。研究發現，若以市民對政府的總體施政滿意度和政治信任度來反映政府的認受性，政策表現是政府認受性的基礎，在當前全球金融危機的困擾下，市民對政府各項政策範疇的表現頗有怨言。調查數據顯示，在經濟上發展有前景行業、民生與福利上改善失業問題，應可同時回應主流民意及平衡怨氣較深的市民在政策上的訴求，是當前政府政策工作的重中之重；做不好這方面的工作，政府的認受性難免繼續受壓。與此同時，政治議題在市民的深層意識中亦揮之不去，直接牽動他們對政府的滿意度和信任度。在政改問題未能達成廣泛的社會共識前，加強吸納民意和改善政治委任制是紓緩政改壓力的關鍵。

這方面的民意，本地政黨及政團同樣不容忽視，市民最期望政黨及政團反映民意和協助政府施政，但政黨及政團未能充份掌握主流民意，故他們的表現滿意度和政治信任度比政府還要低。

Policy Performance and GovernmentLegitimacy: Policy Implications of Public Attitudes for the Hong Kong Government

This article analyses data from a telephone survey to assess the relationship between policy performance and government legitimacy in Hong Kong. The study shows that the government’s policy performance is the foundation of its legitimacy, as measured by public satisfaction and trust towards the government. As the global financial crisis deepens, the people’s level of dissatisfaction with the government’s performance in various policy areas remains high. To cope with mainstream policy expectations and to soothe the discontented masses, the most urgent priorities for the government are to develop industries with long-term prospects and to tackle the problem of unemployment. A failure to meet such expectations would mean that the government will continue to come under pressure and its legitimacy will suffer. At the same time, local people remain deeply sensitive about political issues, which directly affects their level of satisfaction and political trust towards the government. Before a broad consensus in society is reached over future political reforms, it is crucial for the government to strengthen the inclusion of public opinion in policy formulation and to improve the performance of the political appointment system. This will relieve the pressure on it to institute political reforms.

Given the abovementioned public attitudes, local political parties should not be complacent, partly because their satisfaction and trust rating are in fact lower than that of the government and partly because the local people widely expect them to be better than they currently are at reflecting the views of the public and to help the government run society.