Bureaucratic Responsiveness and Legitimacy: The Effects of Independence, Competence, and Warmth on Citizens' Legitimacy Perceptions

ABSTRACT Bureaucratic responsiveness scholarship focused on examining how independent agencies align with the expectations of political principals and professional standards. However, little is known about how citizens perceive the legitimacy of these different responsiveness behaviors. To address this gap, we draw on insights from political science, public administration, and psychology. We hypothesize that three responsiveness signals increase citizens' perceptions of bureaucracies' legitimacy: political independence, competence, and warmth signals in communication. We draw on a survey experiment in Slovakia and Finland, manipulating the independence, competence, and warmth of the European Food Safety Authority. The results suggest that when political representatives contest a scientific agency's advice, signals of competence and warmth strengthen citizens' legitimacy perceptions of the agency. This study advances responsiveness scholarship by expanding its focus to bureaucratic responsiveness models that emphasize adherence to professional standards, support from professional peers, and affective communication with citizens, addressing both cognitive and affective legitimacy evaluations .