How policy effectiveness leads to voluntary policy compliance during crises: A cross-national comparison between the US and South Korea

Abstract This study argues that policy effectiveness is a public value that citizens expect the government to demonstrate in serving society at large, which promotes their normative motivation to voluntarily comply with the policy irrespective of their personal gain in such compliance. Furthermore, the importance of effectiveness in promoting citizens’ voluntary policy compliance is amplified during crises as the salience of effectiveness increases. This argument is examined using cross-national survey data from the US and South Korea, collected amid the global COVID-19 pandemic. The results show that in both countries, perceived effectiveness of the COVID-19 regulatory policies predicted policy compliance, which was mediated by perceived policy legitimacy. Importantly, this relationship persisted even after controlling for the perceived cost and benefit of compliance, personal health status, and family members’ risk of infection, which suggests that effectiveness is indeed a source of normative motivation to comply rather than solely an instrumental one. Moreover, the predictive power of effectiveness was stronger than that of perceived procedural fairness of the policies. This highlights that even in developed nations with individualistic cultures, particularly in the US, effectiveness plays a crucial role during crises.