Unpacking adaptation in implementation : the case of China's food safety policy

Abstract

Adaptation is essential for implementing policy in complex, locally heterogeneous, and evolving contexts. Current research on policy implementation primarily comprises two perspectives: a top-down approach that views adaptation as a control issue with potentially problematic outcomes, but overlooks the diversity of adaptations among multitier actors; and a bottom-up perspective that emphasizes the discretion of street-level bureaucrats in addressing contingencies, but may not adequately account for the impact of underlying organizational contexts. Bridging these perspectives and examining varied adaptations across an implementation system, with a particular focus on the policy decision-making processes within street-level organizations (SLO), is crucial but remains limited in existing research. This thesis integrated policy instrument choice, policy capacity, and related theories into implementation theory and expanded the policy bureaucracy concept to encompass the study of SLOs. It advocated examining adaptative diversity in implementation systems and emphasized street-level managers’ (SLM) policy role in facilitating adaptations. A fine-grained policy instrument approach was proposed to capture how policy intentions were actualized through varied government instruments, enabling a comprehensive and comparative investigation of implementation adaptations. The empirical setting was China’s rapidly-developing food safety regulatory system, providing an opportunity to explore policy implementation adaptations within an authoritarian regime facing challenges of scale politics and long-term policy outcome sustainability. The first empirical chapter analyzed the adaptations of multi-level agents in policy instrument mixes. It identified various instruments used, including a shift from hierarchical-authoritative to market-accommodative and network-collaborative ones, and core and supplementary instruments. The study also revealed local variations in instrument density and intensity, emergent adaptive patterns, and sub-city level (e.g., street/township) agents’ notable contribution to the observed adaptive diversity. Adapted mixes were shaped by local conditions and implementation approaches at different system levels. The second empirical chapter examined the configuration of managerial and policy roles of SLMs through latent profile analysis, given the substantial involvement of SLOs in adaptive implementation activities. The study identified four subgroups of SLMs, displaying considerable variations in managerial styles, policy work prioritization, individual working experiences, organizational backgrounds, and related organizational performance. Additionally, the research introduced a new dimension of instrumentation role to the literature. The third empirical chapter developed a capacity-based framework to comprehend the diverse conditions facilitating local adaptation in implementation. Viewing the frequent adoption of network-collaborative instruments by SLOs as an adaptation during implementation, this study revealed that an SLO’s self-reflective and improvement capacity (internal plausibility) and organizational responsiveness to external demands (external sensitivity) mutually enable the change. This offered multiple feasible pathways for reform under varying circumstances, allowing SLMs to select adaptable strategies best suited to their contexts. This thesis enhances our understanding of policy implementation adaptations in China’s context, going beyond the traditional accounts of implementation deficit and street-level discretion. It contributes to the implementation literature by endorsing a systemic perspective that recognizes diverse temporal-spatial adaptive patterns among implementing agents within a polity. Furthermore, it fosters dialogue between policy-making and implementation research by elucidating the policy roles of street-level managers and the organizational basis for adaptations in policy implementation.