Assessing the Relation between Citizen Satisfaction and Local Administration Performance Pattern According to Good Urban Governance Indices (Case Study: Zones 2, 5, and 6 of Tabriz City)

In the 1950s, 28% of the entire world population lived in cities, while more than 50% are urban citizens now; however, evidence still points to the growing urbanization process all around the globe. Based on predictions, more than 66% of the world population will be living in cities by 2020 (Morgan, 2003). This rapid, irregular growth of cities and urban population of the world not only have changed the meaning of the urban identity and its expected functions, particularly in metropolitan areas (James, 1991), but also have transformed urban management into one of the most complicated and essential platforms for relationships between the government and the public.
Since the second half of the 20th century following the World War II, experts in urban affairs were forced into a tangible shift towards democratic urban systems and city governance approaches from micro to macro levels as a result of fundamental changes in economic, social and political status of the world along with theoretical studies and applied research on the areas of urban planning and administration (Lerner, 2008). In other words, capacity building and empowered urban administration are emphasized by approaches and methods in line with mitigating urbanization unsustainability (Taqwayi & Taajdar, 2009).
The experiences of other countries as well as many experiences gained by municipalities across Iran show that the top-down approach in the form of different plans cannot succeed in resolving urban issues (Nasiri, 2015). Subsequently, the subject of urban governance (good urban governance) was posed as a supervision over a particular type of relation between the government and the civil society, emphasizing the assignment of a portion of urban affairs administration to the citizens. This would be followed by a suitable urban administration structure so that good governance can be realized. In Iran, this structure is based on electing members of the city council by the people, while the council elects the mayor for municipality administration in line with providing the intended urban governance (Ebrahimzadeh & Assadian, 2013). To this end, the present study was conducted to evaluate the extent to which urban governance is realized in Tabriz as well as its effect on citizen satisfaction of the municipality as one of the administrative structures in which urban governance is observed.

The concept of governance is not a new concept and dates back to human civilization. Good governance emphasizes how to achieve a government that can foster democratic and equitable development. The most important indicators of good governance include participation, transparency, legality, accountability, accountability, efficiency and effectiveness, expertise and supervision. Good governance is the result of good planning, beneficial investment in resource management, efficient participation and rational decision making. Among the research that has been done is Kennedy Stuart's essay Designing Indicators of Good Urban Governance: The Importance of Citizen Participation and Evaluation in Greater Vancouver.

The present inquiry is a survey study conducted using questionnaires. The total population of the study included the clients who referred to the municipality offices in three zones throughout Tabriz (zones 2, 5, and 6), out of whom 300 were selected randomly. Questionnaires were distributed among the sample population. The reliability of the questionnaire was obtained at a confidence level of 86% using Cronbach’s alpha in the SPSS software. 
In this investigation, the collected data were analyzed and the hypotheses were tested using descriptive-inferential statistic methods, including one-sample T test, correlation and multi-variable regression using the SPSS software.
This study seeks to provide answers to the following research questions:
What is the level of citizen satisfaction with respect to the local administration pattern according to urban governance indices?
Is there a significant relationship between citizens’ satisfaction of municipality performance and efficiency of urban governance?
What is the priority regarding the effectiveness of urban governance indices in shaping a local administration pattern?

The results of t-test show that the citizen satisfaction of municipality performance in relation with the efficiency of governance indices is at a level below average with a value of below 3. The results of correlation test show a positive and significant relationship between the variable of citizen satisfaction of the local administration performance based on governance indices. This suggests that there would be a higher citizen satisfaction in case of a better performance by the municipality and an improved governance index. Finally, six indices including notification and familiarity with rights, order and legitimacy, citizens’ trust, managers’ extent of responsiveness, reverence and respect, and specialization all have considerable effects on the citizen satisfaction of municipality performance. The notification and familiarity with rights index has the highest effect (with a value of 0.224).

The present study was an attempt to identify the criteria and factors in shaping a suitable local administration pattern based on good urban governance and also employ them to enhance and improve citizen satisfaction of this administrative entity. The following is a conclusion of the results presented in brief:
The results show that the performance of municipalities in relation with realizing good urban governance followed by citizen satisfaction was below average.
The results also demonstrate a significant, direct relationship between citizen satisfaction and the effectiveness of governance indices in shaping a suitable local management pattern.
Ultimately, the results denote the effect of the entire investigated indices on the extent of citizen satisfaction of municipality performance. The notification and familiarity with rights index has the highest effect.

As a result, the following recommendations are listed in line with improving the effectiveness and efficiency of urban governance indices so as to enhance the citizen satisfaction of Tabriz municipality performance:
Presenting a clear definition of the responsibilities of municipality staff toward clients.
Bilateral culturalization (staff and clients) in the area of building trust between the two parties.