Policy Friction: An Explanation of Policy Implementation Deviation in China

Implementation deviation is common and interesting in the process of policy implementation in China, and many policies are even deviated from the original intention of the policy because of implementation deviation.... [ view full abstract ]

Implementation deviation is common and interesting in the process of policy implementation in China, and many policies are even deviated from the original intention of the policy because of implementation deviation. Implementation deviation mechanism is necessary to solve the challenges of policy implementation.
The existing research mainly focuses on the perspective of different levels of government in china, and believes that the interaction of subject in local decentralization system of authoritarian regime is the main reason for policy implementation deviation in China.However, it can't explain why the interaction occurs.
The research is based on the perspective of government and enterprise, taking the risk compensation policy series of innovation as an example for case analysis to explain the performance and mechanism of policy deviation in China.
The research puts forward the conception of "policy friction" as a new interpretation for policy implementation deviation in China. The research shows that the policy implementation deviation has three characteristics: more dissatisfaction but less conflicts in policy, action changed but the policy text unchanged, implementation deviation but policy implementation can be sustained.
The research argues that the deviation of policy implementation is "policy friction", which is the result of the interaction between the enterprises and government, since public policy is not only a tool of public affairs management but also a tool of government blame-avoiding.
The attribute of government blame-avoiding leads to strong government in the process of policy formulation and implementation. Therefore, the opinions of enterprises can only be expressed in the way of non-implementation or modification. But as a public affairs management tool, the policy would rely on the participation of enterprises. "Policy Friction" is formed.
The research tries to break through the limitations of policy implementation process, taking policy attribute as consideration, further explained the interaction mechanism between government and enterprise to make more efforts in research of the policy implementation.