The Discourse Reconstruction In Chinese Local Governments' Policy Implementation

In the contemporary Chinese governance structure,tensions between the policy uniformity of central government's persistence for maintaining its authority and the policy flexibility of local governments' demands for effective governance still exist.Thus,can and how can central policies be implemented effectively by local governments has always been the focus for Chinese policy practitioners and scholars.Also,it becomes the touchstone of the modernization of Chinese national governance system and capability.Although three basic paths which are “discourse reconstruction,expanding participation and cooperation and local governments' innovation” have been frequently regarded as ways to contribute effective policy implementation in recent oversea policy implementation studies.By contrast with the latter two themed studies,we still know little about how local governments implement policies with the help of discourse reconstruction.In this study,we first use Zhou's Control Right Theory to extract the core contents of policy texts,then we construct the “ambiguity——possibility” framework and apply it to the analytical process about two policies' implementation in provinces and cities nationwide.The two policies are respectively the Implementation Plan of Domestic Waste Classification System issued by National Development and Reform Commission and Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development in 2017 andthe Work Plan to Streamline Administration,Delegate Power,Delegate Regulation to Transform Government Functions.Through text analysis,our study uncovers that Chinese local governments reconstruct policy discourse in goal setting,inspection and incentive provision in the policy implementation process,the degree of ambiguity of central policy and the possibility of central governments' interference to local implementation plan are two factors.This study also tries to explore the reconstruction strategies and behavioral logic of local governments on different policy issues.This study is helpful to understand the role of policy texts in China's national governance system.