How Do Street-Level Bureaucrats Drive Successful Environmental Policy Implementation?——Comparative Case Studies Based on Different Policy Implementation Models

Abstract

How street bureaucrats as policy implementers comply with policies to achieve policy goals and maintain grassroots stability is a hot issue of concern in the field of public policy. Based on a two-dimensional analytical framework of goal congruence and interest conformity, we explore the typological differences in policy implementation among grassroots street-level bureaucrats. Through a multi-case analysis of policy implementation in the environmental protection policy area of town A, we find that there are differences in the policy compliance behaviors of local street-level bureaucrats, specifically in the heterogeneous implementation of environmental protection inspectors, the rigid implementation of burn ban policy, the flexible implementation of natural gas policy, and the successful implementation of electricity subsidy policy. Based on the subject chain of “policy maker-policy implementer-target group”, this paper enriches the research perspective of street-level bureaucrats’ policy implementation.