From Policy Adoption to Practice: Comparative Analysis of Innovation Institutionalization Paths

Abstract

Policy innovation is critical to improve governance capacity; however, contemporary research mainly focuses on diffusion and adoption, disregarding the next stage, namely institutionalization. Taking the diffusion and institutionalization of China’s “One Visit at Most” reform as a case study and using fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis, this paper examines the conditions and paths that lead local governments to institutionalize this reform . The results show that four paths lead from innovation to institutionalization: policy system and idea embeddedness, spontaneous competition, learning by seizing momentum, and entrepreneurial breakthrough. These findings extend the research on policy adoption, diffusion, and institutionalization.

Keywords:

• policy innovation
• diffusion
• policy institutionalization
• “One Visit at Most”
• China
• fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. This is when the data collected for this paper can obtain the final local government policy adoption.

2. A complete list of keywords can be found in Appendix 1.

3. The State Council has stipulated that no less than 90 per cent of provincial government services should be available online by the end of 2019.

4. Under China’s incentive structure, local governments rarely copy the innovations of other local governments. To be institutionalized, the fidelity of the original innovation needs to be reduced. The decrease in fidelity also signals an increase in its adaptability.

5. Wanbo New Economic Research Institute is a private non-profit institution approved by the Beijing Civil Affairs Bureau; it is a high-end think tank.

6. For the robustness test, see Appendix 4.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Changkun Cai

Changkun Cai is Assistant Professor at the College of Public Administration, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China. Specializing in politics and policy in China, public service delivery, and institutional analysis, he has published articles in Public Administration, The China Quarterly, Social Policy and Administration, Policy Studies, Public Administration and Development, among others.

Yitian Xu

Yitian Xu is a Master’s student at the College of Public Administration, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China. She specializes in public governance and public policy.

Nan Zhou

Nan Zhou is a Master’s student at the Law School, Renmin University of China, Beijing, China. She specializes in legal practice.