Implementing targeted poverty alleviation: a policy implementation typology

Abstract

Existing research on the targeted poverty alleviation program in China struggles to explain the dynamics of policy implementation. This article incorporates individual-level factors such as street-level bureaucrats’ discretion and behaviors with institutional elements, thus combining structure-centered and actor-centered approaches. The data utilized is from 19 semi-structured interviews with township officials, local village cadres, and villagers located in an eastern province in China. By identifying and coding the policy perspectives of ‘street-level bureaucrats’ (i.e. village cadres in this case) through a two by two factorial table (combinations of the identifiability and the participation willingness of the target population), this study conceptualizes the policy output of ‘behaviors of implementers’ to categorize the policy implementation outcomes of the program. The four policy implementation patterns identified are supportive policy implementation, passive policy implementation, unsustainable policy implementation, and performative policy implementation. By isolating these four policy implementation patterns, this research provides insights on local governance and policy implementation in contemporary rural China.