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Experiment-based policy making or conscious policy design? The case of urban housing reform in China

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  • Ciqi Mei
  • Zhilin Liu

Abstract

The public policy literature has long debated whether policy change results from conscious policy design or is contingent upon a political process involving both state and non-state actors. An experiment-based policy-making model based on China’s experience attempts to reconcile such debate by arguing that policy makers can consciously make policies without deliberately designing them. That is, policy makers can encourage or initiate multiple small-scale experiments that will cumulatively translate into incremental policy changes. Through a case study of urban housing policy changes in China, this paper investigates the underlying logic of incremental policy changes, specifically the role of policy makers in successive policy experimentation. Our case study illustrates that the role of local policy experimentation has been overestimated because the central government controls the experimental variables, judges what constitutes the success of the experiment, and chooses which experiments are replicated at the national level. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media New York 2014

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  • Ciqi Mei & Zhilin Liu, 2014. "Experiment-based policy making or conscious policy design? The case of urban housing reform in China," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 47(3), pages 321-337, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:policy:v:47:y:2014:i:3:p:321-337
    DOI: 10.1007/s11077-013-9185-y
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    3. Yongchao Wu & Xinyuan Wei & Yanan Liu & Huilong Li, 2024. "Can the Circular Economy Demonstration Policy Enhance the Green Innovation Level? A Quasi-Natural Experiment from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(8), pages 1-17, April.
    4. Xiaobo Su & Yi Miao, 2022. "BORDER CONTROL: The Territorial Politics of Policy Experimentation in Chinese Border Cities," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(4), pages 522-541, July.
    5. Mai, Nhat Chi, 2017. "Influences on the policy process in local government in Vietnam: The case of low-income housing policy in Da Nang City from 2005-2013," OSF Preprints zvbmc, Center for Open Science.
    6. Can Cui & Hongtao Yi, 2020. "What Drives the Performance of Collaboration Networks: A Qualitative Comparative Analysis of Local Water Governance in China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(6), pages 1-16, March.
    7. Shihong Guo & Qijiao Song & Ye Qi, 2021. "Innovation or implementation? Local response to low‐carbon policy experimentation in China," Review of Policy Research, Policy Studies Organization, vol. 38(5), pages 555-569, September.
    8. Alex Jingwei He & Yumeng Fan & Rui Su, 2022. "Seeking policy solutions in a complex system: experimentalist governance in China’s healthcare reform," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 55(4), pages 755-776, December.

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