The politics of policy reformulation: implementing social policy in provincial China

In: Journal of contemporary China, Band 31, Heft 134, S. 301-318

Abstract

How do Chinese provincial governments reformulate the general central policies into implementable local policy outputs? How does this vary across provinces? Despite considerable research on policy implementation in China, strategies of policy reformulation remain understudied. To better understand these strategies, this article proposes a four-scenario typology: an innovative strategy, a defensive strategy, a conservative strategy, and a perfunctory strategy. Using a novel 2003–2017 dataset of provincial documents that were reformulated from central social policy mandates, as well as a preliminary case study of the Household Registration System reform, this article explores the spatial and temporal dynamics of policy reformulation in provincial China. The findings shed light on the complexity of policy implementation in China. (J Contemp China/GIGA)