Understanding policy implementation capacity in China

Much has been written about China’s policy-making process, characterized by a guiding strategic planning process supported by a somewhat centralized resource distribution system that allows a high level of central government’s control over policy directions but also grants sub-national governments with autonomy of local policy manoeuvrer. Less clear is that, once a policy is formulated, how it is executed within a vast bureaucratic network of relationships, including the hierarchical top-down as well as increasingly popular collaborative networks that keep evolving in response to complex and changing policy circumstances and service needs. Recent developments in pandemic controls and economic slowdown, for example, can be attributable to the structural issues inherited in policy implementation such as limitations of the top-down system in responding and thus motivating local officials and imbalanced fiscal structure intended for central control.

This symposium is an effort to provide a better understanding of policy implementation dynamics and practices, based on the traditional public policy and management literature and terminologies familiar to an international readership. We believe that such an effort should improve academic and policy communication and understanding, especially for those readers, global or in China, interested in a better grasp of policy implementation issues in China.

© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to the Institute for Global Public Policy, Fudan University 2024