**5. Discussion**

The results of the descriptive statistical analysis and paired-samples *t*-tests showed that Chinese citizens' trust in central governmen<sup>t</sup> was significantly higher than in county and township governments. The effect sizes showed that the trust gap between the central and county and township governments was medium, but the trust gap between the latter two governments was small. This is consistent with the results of previous studies [51,52]. The hierarchical trust in governmen<sup>t</sup> may be due to Chinese citizens' inclination of regarding the central governmen<sup>t</sup> as performing better than local governments [53]. The trust gap between the central and local governments in part reflected "the gap between central rhetoric and local practice" [54]. Chinese citizens' social security fairness, social security satisfaction, and life satisfaction were at an average level, which may be caused by the government's failure to meet the citizens' demand for social security services.

The results indicated that social security fairness positively predicted trust in government, and the positive prediction of trust via social security fairness in the lower-level governmen<sup>t</sup> was better than in higher-level government. Previous research has shown that maintaining social fairness is the government's inherent duty and that social fairness is closely related to trust in governmen<sup>t</sup> [6]. Social policy fairness, distributive fairness, and the fairness of the service delivery processes have been confirmed to positively predict citizens' trust in governmen<sup>t</sup> [7,14,40,55]. Our findings were consistent with previous results. However, we further discovered that the prediction of trust in local governmen<sup>t</sup> (county and township government) using social security fairness was stronger compared to that of trust in central government. China's governance system may explain this interesting finding. The Chinese governance system's characteristics can be summarized as "vertically decentralized authoritarianism"; the central governmen<sup>t</sup> governs the Chinese officials, while the local governmen<sup>t</sup> governs the people [56]. The low-level governments execute more social security services, and the citizens have more contact with the low-level governments in the process of receiving social security services. Citizens interact more frequently with low-level governments. Therefore, the role of social security fairness in improving trust in low-level governments may be more obvious than in high-level governments. A previous study also found social fairness had a stronger effect on trust in local governmen<sup>t</sup> compared to trust in central governmen<sup>t</sup> [57].

The results showed that social security satisfaction partially mediated the relationship between social security fairness and overall trust in governmen<sup>t</sup> including at the central, county, and township levels of government. Previous studies have demonstrated that the fairness of the service delivery process and citizens' satisfaction with the quality of public services are highly associated with trust in governmen<sup>t</sup> [8,58]. Our results are consistent with previous studies. If citizens perceive the process and outcome of social security service delivery as unfair, their satisfaction with social security will be significantly reduced, leading to complaints and the loss of trust in their government.

Figure 3 illustrates that social security fairness indirectly and partially predicted trust in governmen<sup>t</sup> at the county and township levels through life satisfaction. Prior research has shown that social policy fairness positively predicts citizens' life satisfaction [13,40]. This finding is consistent with previous studies. It is worth noting that life satisfaction did not have a statistically significant association with trust in central government. Life satisfaction was not a significant mediator in the relationship between social security fairness and trust in central government. In China, the central governmen<sup>t</sup> is responsible for the formulation of policies, while local governments are responsible for the implementation of these policies. The governance system of "vertically decentralized authoritarianism" makes the county and township governments the main service providers in China. Thus, the quality of citizens' life is more closely determined by the actions of the county and township governments than by the central government. Prior research has shown that improvements in family finances significantly increased citizens' trust in county and township governments, but not in high-level governments [59]. Li found that citizens with lower life satisfaction had lower trust in governmen<sup>t</sup> and even lower trust in local government, which was directly related to their perceptions of quality of life [60]. Therefore, improvements in life satisfaction can help increase trust in county and township governments.

Our results indicated that social security fairness indirectly positively predicted overall trust in government, county, and township governments through the serial mediation of social security fairness and life satisfaction. Zhou et al. [61] demonstrated that social security satisfaction significantly and positively predicted citizens' life satisfaction. Since social security services affect all aspects of a citizen's life, their dissatisfaction with social security may have a negative spillover effect that may negatively impact life satisfaction and trust in county and township governments. Therefore, formulating social policy to safeguard social security fairness is important for promoting trust in county and township governments.
