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Abstract
Various policy initiatives have been launched to spur innovation in China. They include pilot cities, self-dependent demonstration areas, and comprehensive reform zones. By reviewing the policy formulation processes of these initiatives, we describe the distinct features of experimentalist governance in China. And, we add to policy process theory by analyzing their authority distribution, strategic objectives, and policy goals and instruments. China’s pursuit of its innovation strategy has caused three experimentalist governance patterns to emerge. The cities explore policy alternatives through adaptive reconciliation. The regions test policy instruments through selective recognition. And, the central government uses hierarchical experimentation to deploy its policy frameworks. Through the temporal and spatial interactions of China’s multilevel governments, these patterns have shaped a progressive approach to the formation (or reformation) of the nation’s innovation policy.
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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 Lundvall, “National Innovation Systems.”
2 Martinez and McNab, “Fiscal Decentralization and Economic Growth”; Sanderson, “Evaluation, Policy Learning.”
3 Overdevest and Zeitlin, “Assembling an Experimentalist Regime.”
4 Adams, “Decentralization and Policy Experimentation.”
5 Holtgrave, Doll, and Harrison, “Influence of Behavioral and Social Science”; McGann, Blomkamp, and Lewis, “The Rise of Public Sector Innovation Labs”; Sabel and Zeitlin, “Learning from Difference”; Michael and Rema, “Environmental Regulations, Air and Water Pollution.”
6 Zhang and Zhu, “The Moderating Role of Top‐Down Supports”; Colon and Guérin-Schneider, “The Reform of New Public Management and the Creation of Public Values.”
7 Yu, Stough, and Nijkamp, “Governing Technological Entrepreneurship”; Chan, “Cadre Personnel Management in China.”
8 Thomas, “Implications of China's Reform Experience.”
9 Chen, Pan, and Xu, “Sources of Authoritarian Responsiveness.”
10 Cai and Treisman, “Did Government Decentralization Cause China's Economic Miracle?”
11 Zhu and Zhao, “Experimentalist Governance with Interactive Central–Local Relations.”
12 Hsiung, “From Revolutionary Regime to Normal Governance.”
13 Verdun, “Experimentalist Governance in the European Union.”
14 Fan, “The Centre Decides and the Local Pays.”
15 Wu and Zhang, “Local Government Innovation Diffusion in China.”
16 Nash, “The Transformation of Governance in the European Union.”
17 King, “Governing Work and Welfare in a New Economy.”
18 Guan, “China's Social Policy.”
19 Dong and Wang, “China's Pension Challenge.”
20 Cohen and Sabel, “Directly‐Deliberative Polyarchy”; Rosenberg, “Mao's Invisible Hand.”
21 Xue and Zhong, “Domestic Reform and Global Integration.”
22 Shi, “Left to Market and Family – Again?”; Conroy and Berke, “What Makes a Good Sustainable Development Plan?”
23 Vogel et al., “Governing Global City Regions in China”; Landry, “Decentralized Authoritarianism in China.”
24 Heilmann, Shih, and Hofem, “National Planning and Local Technology Zones”; Zhang, “Fiscal Decentralization and Political Centralization in China.”
25 Zhu, “Inter-regional Diffusion of Policy Innovation in China.”; Wing, “The Real Reasons for China's Growth.”
26 Heilmann, “From Local Experiments to National Policy.”
27 Dillon and Keech, “Ronald Coase, Ning Wang”; Schubert and Alpermann, “Studying the Chinese Policy Process.”
28 Heilmann, “Policy Experimentation in China’s Economic Rise.”
29 Xu, “The Fundamental Institutions.”
30 Cai and Treisman, “Did Government Decentralization Cause China's Economic Miracle?”
31 Li, “Social pension unification in an urbanising China.”
32 Chen, “The Project System and the Mobilization of Basic Level Governments.”
33 Chen, “Transition and Development in China towards Shared Growth.”
34 Wang, “Adapting by Learning.”
35 Bird and François, Fiscal Decentralization in Developing Countries.
36 Malesky and London, “The Political Economy of Development.”
37 Faguet and Sánchez, “Decentralization's Effects on Educational Outcomes.”
38 Benjamin, “The Politics of Deepening Local Democracy.”
39 Bardhan and Dilip, “Decentralization and Local Governance in Developing Countries.”
40 Feng, Gu, and Cai, “The End of China's One-Child Policy.”
41 Charles, “Decentralization and Recentralization in the Developing World.”
42 Graham, Shipan, and Volden, “The Diffusion of Policy Diffusion Research.”
43 Sarah, “Framework for Measuring Research.”
44 Xue and Liou, “Government reform in China.”
45 Wallace, “An Essay on Fiscal Federalism.”
46 Kung and Chen, “The Tragedy of the Nomenklatura”; Li, “Social Pension Unification in An Urbanising China.”
47 Lai et al., “Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CCS).”
48 Suzuki and Hur, “Bureaucratic Structures and Organizational Commitment.”
49 Andrew and Aaron, “Vertical Diffusion and the Shifting Politics”; Edin, “State Capacity and Local Agent Control in China.”
50 Montinola, Qian, and Weingast, “Federalism, Chinese Style.”
51 Chung, “China’s Local Governance in Perspective“; Zhu and Zhang, “Political Mobility and Dynamic Diffusion of Innovation.”
52 Teets and Noesselt, “The State of the Field for Governance.”
53 Shi, Chertow, and Song, “Developing Country Experience with Eco-industrial Parks”; Heilmann and Elizabeth, Mao's Invisible Hand.
54 Noesselt, “City Brains and Smart Urbanization”; Konisky and Teodoro, “When Governments Regulate Governments.”
55 Peilei, “Promoting Indigenous Capability.”
56 Sutherland, “China's Science Parks.”
57 Foster, “China Experiments.”
58 See Zhu,”Executive Entrepreneurship, Career Mobility and the Transfer of Policy Paradigms”.
59 See note 46 above.
60 Mei and Pearson, “Killing a Chicken to Scare the Monkeys?.”
61 Cong, “Zhongguancun and China's High-Tech Parks.”
62 See note 47 above.
63 Etzkowitz and Leydesdorff, “The Dynamics of Innovation”; Chung, “China’s Local Governance in Perspective”; Butler et al., “Ideology, Learning, and Policy Diffusion.”
64 Li, Mao, and Zhang, “Empirical Research on the Different Innovation Engine”; Konisky and Teodoro, “When Governments Regulate Governments.”
65 Chien, “The Isomorphism of Local Development Policy”; Hu and Kong, “Policy Innovation of Local Officials in China”; Zhang and Zhu, “Multiple Mechanisms of Policy Diffusion in China.”
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Notes on contributors
Wenguang Zhang
Dr. Wenguang Zhang is a Professor and the Dean of the School of Government at Beijing Normal University. His research focuses on governance and public policies related to the National Innovation System and rural development. He has been serving as the Chief Scientist in more than 40 research projects, including Major Projects of the National Social Science Fund, Major Projects of Beijing Social Science Fund, and Major Projects of Poverty Alleviation Office of the State Council. He has published more than 100 research papers in top journals. Dr. Zhang is a member of the State Council of Experts, the National MPA Education Steering Committee, and the Advisory Committee of Public Management Professional Education in China.
Ji Lu
Dr. Ji Lu is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Agriculture at Dalhousie University, Canada. His research focuses on connecting innovation and public policy with individual choices. His work is published in top journals in the fields of management and social psychology.
Binbin Song
Dr. Binbin Song is a Lecturer in the School of Finance and Taxation, Henan University of Economics and Law. His research interests include innovation governance and policy evaluation. His research papers have appeared in Chinese Public Administration, Journal of Sichuan University, among others.
Hongping Lian
Dr. Hongping Lian is an Associate Professor in the School of Government, Beijing Normal University. Her research interests include land policy and grassroots governance. Her studies have appeared in World Development, Land Use Policy, Journal of Contemporary China.