Interagency Collaboration and Blame Avoidance: An Investigation of China’s Childcare Service Development

This paper focuses on the changing interaction between Taiwanese entrepreneurs and local Chinese governments. Through the analysis of this changing process, it can be seen that Taiwanese businesses are a special “asset” of Chinese governments. The main argument of this paper is that both central and local governments in China have strategic considerations in respect of Taiwanese businesses. The Chinese central government values Taiwanese businesses because more Taiwanese investment in China strengthens the Beijing government in negotiations with the Taibei government. Nevertheless, since the Kuomintang (KMT) (Guomindang) regained power in 2008, the strategic value of Taiwanese businesses in the cross-Strait relationship seems to have decreased. The central government has created a profitable macro-environment enabling local officials to give a warm welcome to Taiwanese businesses. Chinese local governments value Taiwanese businessmen not only because of the central government's deliberate policy but also because they are pursuing their own self-interest. This paper firstly focuses on the changing interaction between Taiwanese businesses and Chinese local governments. It then further analyses the different but complementary interests of both central and local governments in China in relation to Taiwanese investors.

In recent years, the Chinese central government has issued a series of energy conservation and environmental protection policies to promote China 's ecological civilization construction. As the main executor of the central government 's energy conservation and environmental protection policy, local governments in China should have implemented the policy as required. However, some local governments in China, regardless of the specific reality of the implementation object and policy environment, promote the implementation of the policy in a simple “One-size-fits-all” way, while other local governments selectively implement the central policy and resort to fraud in the face of inspections. Grassroots governments and local governments at higher levels are so tacitly " conspiring " that the ecological and environmental protection policies of the Chinese central government cannot be fully implemented and the policy effectiveness cannot be fully demonstrated. Why do China 's local governments still have these situations in the process of policy implementation when the Chinese central government explicitly prohibits them ? Why do local governments make a choice between “One-size-fits-all” and " collusion " ? Taking the implementation of energy conservation and emission reduction policies and environmental protection policies in S city of China as an example, this paper puts forward the analysis framework of " local government execution resources-time " to analyze the behavior choice of local governments in China. This study finally found that under the common pressure of completing tasks and superior inspections, Chinese local governments will choose to adopt “One-size-fits-all” behavior or " collusion " behavior according to the matching degree of their own execution resources and time resources. The research in this paper helps to better understand the logic of Chinese local governments ' choice of policy implementation methods, and also has certain reference significance for Chinese local governments ' choice of policy implementation methods in other fields.

The article discusses corruption and selective policy implementation as general phenomena, related to the configurations of political power and the behavior of key actors in a specific rural county, Benghai County of Anhui Province. The County government only takes up initiatives in which three conditions are met, which are highlighted.

Despite the existence of effective interventions and best-practice guideline recommendations for childcare services to implement evidence-based policies, practices and programmes to promote child healthy eating, physical activity and prevent unhealthy weight gain, many services fail to do so. The primary aim of the review was to examine the effectiveness of strategies aimed at improving the implementation of policies, practices or programmes by childcare services that promote child healthy eating, physical activity and/or obesity prevention. The secondary aims of the review were to: 1. Examine the cost or cost-effectiveness of such strategies; 2. Examine any adverse effects of such strategies on childcare services, service staff or children; 3. Examine the effect of such strategies on child diet, physical activity or weight status. 4. Describe the acceptability, adoption, penetration, sustainability and appropriateness of such implementation strategies. We searched the following electronic databases on February 22 2019: Cochrane Central Register of Controlled trials (CENTRAL), MEDLINE, MEDLINE In Process, Embase, PsycINFO, ERIC, CINAHL and SCOPUS for relevant studies. We searched reference lists of included studies, handsearched two international implementation science journals, the World Health Organization International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (www.who.int/ictrp/) and ClinicalTrials.gov (www.clinicaltrials.gov). We included any study (randomised or nonrandomised) with a parallel control group that compared any strategy to improve the implementation of a healthy eating, physical activity or obesity prevention policy, practice or programme by staff of centre-based childcare services to no intervention, 'usual' practice or an alternative strategy. Centre-based childcare services included preschools, nurseries, long daycare services and kindergartens catering for children prior to compulsory schooling (typically up to the age of five to six years). Two review authors independently screened study titles and abstracts, extracted study data and assessed risk of bias; we resolved discrepancies via consensus. We performed meta-analysis using a random-effects model where studies with suitable data and homogeneity were identified; otherwise, findings were described narratively. Twenty-one studies, including 16 randomised and five nonrandomised, were included in the review. The studies sought to improve the implementation of policies, practices or programmes targeting healthy eating (six studies), physical activity (three studies) or both healthy eating and physical activity (12 studies). Studies were conducted in the United States (n = 12), Australia (n = 8) and Ireland (n = 1). Collectively, the 21 studies included a total of 1945 childcare services examining a range of implementation strategies including educational materials, educational meetings, audit and feedback, opinion leaders, small incentives or grants, educational outreach visits or academic detailing, reminders and tailored interventions. Most studies (n = 19) examined implementation strategies versus usual practice or minimal support control, and two compared alternative implementation strategies. For implementation outcomes, six studies (one RCT) were judged to be at high risk of bias overall. The review findings suggest that implementation strategies probably improve the implementation of policies, practices or programmes that promote child healthy eating, physical activity and/or obesity prevention in childcare services. Of the 19 studies that compared a strategy to usual practice or minimal support control, 11 studies (nine RCTs) used score-based measures of implementation (e.g. childcare service nutrition environment score). Nine of these studies were included in pooled analysis, which found an improvement in implementation outcomes (SMD 0.49; 95% CI 0.19 to 0.79; participants = 495; moderate-certainty evidence). Ten studies (seven RCTs) used dichotomous measures of implementation (e.g. proportion of childcare services implementing a policy or specific practice), with seven of these included in pooled analysis (OR 1.83; 95% CI 0.81 to 4.11; participants = 391; low-certainty evidence). Findings suggest that such interventions probably lead to little or no difference in child physical activity (four RCTs; moderate-certainty evidence) or weight status (three RCTs; moderate-certainty evidence), and may lead to little or no difference in child diet (two RCTs; low-certainty evidence). None of the studies reported the cost or cost-effectiveness of the intervention. Three studies assessed the adverse effects of the intervention on childcare service staff, children and parents, with all studies suggesting they have little to no difference in adverse effects (e.g. child injury) between groups (three RCTs; low-certainty evidence). Inconsistent quality of the evidence was identified across review outcomes and study designs, ranging from very low to moderate. The primary limitation of the review was the lack of conventional terminology in implementation science, which may have resulted in potentially relevant studies failing to be identified based on the search terms used. Current research suggests that implementation strategies probably improve the implementation of policies, practices or programmes by childcare services, and may have little or no effect on measures of adverse effects. However such strategies appear to have little to no impact on measures of child diet, physical activity or weight status.

This article reviews the development of childcare policies and services in Hong Kong after the handover, gauging it with two standards: promoting the equal development of children and gender equality in our society. Statistics derived from data taken from multiple sources show that the government has been sticking to a “positive non‐intervention approach” to welfare development and that the male breadwinner/female carer model prevalent in this region was shaped and strengthened by current childcare policies and services. The current provision of childcare services is insufficient to guarantee the equal use of childcare among children of different socioeconomic backgrounds, or to ease the tension between the needs of childcare and job requirements in a family, or to emancipate married women from the domestic sphere. A “generative welfare approach” that collects fiscal resources and redistributes them strategically with a systemic mind‐set has been suggested for social policy and service planning, including spending the money in the right place, launching smart and practical policies that can achieve both pragmatic effects and ideological improvement in the area of gender equality, providing financial support or subsidies to a company for the provision of parental leave, and increasing the provision of quality childcare services.

PurposeThis paper aims to examine the factors affecting the implementation of affordable housing policies in two Chinese municipal governments. Since 2010, the Chinese government has enforced an ambitious plan to adopt affordable housing provisions accompanying a series of urbanization programs. Furthermore, the policy implementation at the local level has led to various outcomes but has been scarcely investigated. The views of policy implementation from local officials are crucial in the context of intergovernmental relations. Therefore, it is important to examine the views of local public officials on the development status and challenges in the context of Chinese intergovernmental relations.Design/methodology/approachThis paper verifies which factors exert significant impacts on the willingness of local officials to adapt affordable housing policies by using the logistic regression model and marginal effect estimation. With original data from the fieldwork surveys of city administrators, the measures incorporated local characteristics as well as the intergovernmental support from the central government in two selected megacities, Guangzhou and Shenzhen.FindingsThere are significant differences in local investment between the selected cities. Intergovernmental support from the central government, city development strategies, implementation perceptions of local governments and land supply, all significantly impact the selection of an affordable housing program and its overall implementation.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ understanding, this study would be one of the first to empirically explore the view of municipal public officials on affordable housing policy in China. This paper provides an empirical analysis from municipal public officials on the local implementation of affordable housing policies in China. As the outcome of housing policies actually depends on the implementation willingness of public officials and the overall performance of local governments, this explorative study would benefit the future development of China’s affordable housing policy.

Supporting centre-based childcare services to create physical activity (PA) environments is a recommended strategy to improve child PA. This study aimed to describe the implementation of PA policies and practices by these services, and to examine the associations with service characteristics. Nominated supervisors of childcare services (n=309) in the Hunter New England region, New South Wales, Australia, completed a telephone interview. Using previously validated measures, the interview assessed the implementation of evidence-based practices shown to be associated with child PA. This includes: (a) provision of active play opportunities, (b) portable play equipment availability, (c) delivery of daily fundamental movement skills, (d) having at least 50% of staff trained in promoting child PA the past 5years and (e) having written PA and small screen recreation policies. Although 98% (95% CI 96, 99) of childcare services provided active play opportunities for at least 25% of their daily opening hours, only 8% (95% CI 5, 11) of services fully implemented all policies and practices; with no service characteristic associated with full implementation. Long day care service had twice the odds of having a written PA policy (OR 2.0, 95% CI 0.7, 5.8), compared to preschools (adjusted for service size, socio-economic disadvantage and geographical location). Improvements could be made to childcare services' operations to support the promotion of child PA. SO WHAT?: To ensure the benefits to child health, childcare services require support to implement a number of PA promoting policies and practices that are known to improve child PA.

The childcare service in our country has just started and is faced with many problems and challenges. At present, there are some urgent problems to be solved in the development of childcare services in China, such as the contradiction between supply and demand of childcare services, regional differences in the implementation of childcare service policies, insufficient national and local financial investment and subsidies, unclear responsibilities of management departments, and uneven quality of childcare services. In order to address the negative impact of market-oriented childcare services, the government has included childcare services in the strategic planning of establishing a sound social welfare system. In the path of the development of childcare services, the policy intention of promoting the development of childcare services can be promoted by advocating new and changing childcare institutions, breaking the traditional dual type system of childcare services, implementing price control of childcare services and improving the comprehensive supervision system of childcare services, so as to promote the healthy and rapid development of childcare services in China and meet the needs of society and families.

Despite the existence of effective interventions and best-practice guideline recommendations for childcare services to implement policies, practices and programmes to promote child healthy eating, physical activity and prevent unhealthy weight gain, many services fail to do so. The primary aim of the review was to examine the effectiveness of strategies aimed at improving the implementation of policies, practices or programmes by childcare services that promote child healthy eating, physical activity and/or obesity prevention. The secondary aims of the review were to:1. describe the impact of such strategies on childcare service staff knowledge, skills or attitudes;2. describe the cost or cost-effectiveness of such strategies;3. describe any adverse effects of such strategies on childcare services, service staff or children;4. examine the effect of such strategies on child diet, physical activity or weight status. We searched the following electronic databases on 3 August 2015: the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled trials (CENTRAL), MEDLINE, MEDLINE In Process, EMBASE, PsycINFO, ERIC, CINAHL and SCOPUS. We also searched reference lists of included trials, handsearched two international implementation science journals and searched the World Health Organization International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (www.who.int/ictrp/) and ClinicalTrials.gov (www.clinicaltrials.gov). We included any study (randomised or non-randomised) with a parallel control group that compared any strategy to improve the implementation of a healthy eating, physical activity or obesity prevention policy, practice or programme by staff of centre-based childcare services to no intervention, 'usual' practice or an alternative strategy. The review authors independently screened abstracts and titles, extracted trial data and assessed risk of bias in pairs; we resolved discrepancies via consensus. Heterogeneity across studies precluded pooling of data and undertaking quantitative assessment via meta-analysis. However, we narratively synthesised the trial findings by describing the effect size of the primary outcome measure for policy or practice implementation (or the median of such measures where a single primary outcome was not stated). We identified 10 trials as eligible and included them in the review. The trials sought to improve the implementation of policies and practices targeting healthy eating (two trials), physical activity (two trials) or both healthy eating and physical activity (six trials). Collectively the implementation strategies tested in the 10 trials included educational materials, educational meetings, audit and feedback, opinion leaders, small incentives or grants, educational outreach visits or academic detailing. A total of 1053 childcare services participated across all trials. Of the 10 trials, eight examined implementation strategies versus a usual practice control and two compared alternative implementation strategies. There was considerable study heterogeneity. We judged all studies as having high risk of bias for at least one domain.It is uncertain whether the strategies tested improved the implementation of policies, practices or programmes that promote child healthy eating, physical activity and/or obesity prevention. No intervention improved the implementation of all policies and practices targeted by the implementation strategies relative to a comparison group. Of the eight trials that compared an implementation strategy to usual practice or a no intervention control, however, seven reported improvements in the implementation of at least one of the targeted policies or practices relative to control. For these trials the effect on the primary implementation outcome was as follows: among the three trials that reported score-based measures of implementation the scores ranged from 1 to 5.1; across four trials reporting the proportion of staff or services implementing a specific policy or practice this ranged from 0% to 9.5%; and in three trials reporting the time (per day or week) staff or services spent implementing a policy or practice this ranged from 4.3 minutes to 7.7 minutes. The review findings also indicate that is it uncertain whether such interventions improve childcare service staff knowledge or attitudes (two trials), child physical activity (two trials), child weight status (two trials) or child diet (one trial). None of the included trials reported on the cost or cost-effectiveness of the intervention. One trial assessed the adverse effects of a physical activity intervention and found no difference in rates of child injury between groups. For all review outcomes, we rated the quality of the evidence as very low. The primary limitation of the review was the lack of conventional terminology in implementation science, which may have resulted in potentially relevant studies failing to be identified based on the search terms used in this review. Current research provides weak and inconsistent evidence of the effectiveness of such strategies in improving the implementation of policies and practices, childcare service staff knowledge or attitudes, or child diet, physical activity or weight status. Further research in the field is required.

Since the reform of the “tax-sharing system” in 1994, the problem of “unbalanced fiscal revenue and expenditure” of local governments has increasingly become a hot topic of concern to many observers. This is mainly reflected in the lack of budgetary fiscal revenue caused by the mismatch between financial power and responsibility. On the other hand, under the long-term promotion mechanism based on local GDP growth, local officials have continued enthusiasm for “investment attraction” and fixed asset investment. In the context of the central government’s “four-trillion” fiscal stimulus plan in 2008, a large number of local government financing vehicles（LGFVs hence after）have sprung up, and funds have been obtained through bank loans and “Municipal Investment bonds” to support infrastructure construction and stimulate local economic growth. The disorderly expansion of the financing vehicle business also inevitably accumulates a large amount of debt, which makes local governments face the pressure of debt repayment either explicitly or implicitly.Faced with “budgetary pressures within the budget” and “debt pressures” outside the budget, local governments have increasingly relied on land sales for more than a decade. Land transfer income can not only supplement the local fiscal gap, but also become the most credible source of debt service income for local governments. In addition, land assets are the most important financing collateral for financing vehicles. Land income and land assets have become the most important means for Chinese local governments to make up for fiscal pressure and maintain local debt.However, the income from local government land sales is not always stable, but is often affected by shocks from the housing demand side. In order to “cool down” the long-term “overheated” real estate market, the central government announced more than 30 national real estate regulation and control policies between 2003 and 2016. The most typical example is the two waves of “Purchase Restriction” during 2010 and 2013. These regulatory policies have caused short-term negative impacts on the real estate market and the land market, and have significantly reduced the land sales revenue of local governments. Faced with this situation, local governments with greater financial pressure will strive to find other ways to increase land sales income.Under the above background, this article hopes to answer the following important economic question: What measures will local governments that rely on “land finance” take to smooth out fluctuations in fiscal revenue in the face of adverse real estate market shocks? Under the guidance of this goal, this article identifies and analyzes a potentially important mechanism: Chinese local governments use LGFVs to obtain land transfer fees and “feed back” budgetary fiscal revenue. Using micro data from land transfer and LGFVs, we find that the proportion of land purchased by LGFVs in Chinese cities for goods and services has a significant “reverse cycle”, that is, the proportion of transaction volume（area）during the real estate market adjustment period has increased significantly. Further analysis shows that for cities with greater “financial pressure” and higher incentives for local officials to promote, this “countercyclicality” is more intense. Secondly, the funds for land acquisition by LGFVs mainly come from the increase of debt, instead of the subsidies of local governments in the later period, which may further increase local hidden debt. Finally, the above “countercyclicality” mainly comes from the central and western regions and the small cities. The findings of this article are of great significance for the in-depth understanding of the operation mechanism of the “land finance” of local governments and the interactive relationship between “fiscal pressure” within the budget of local governments and “hidden debt” outside the budget.

This paper puts forward a hypothesis suggesting a hierarchical discrepancy between Chinese central government and the local governments, which argues that, in the progress of policy making and implementation, the central government is an encompassing group, whose policy making stems from the historical responsibilities it carries, while the local governments, though politically obedient to the central government, and competing in economy with each other, usually take local economic growth into account during policy execution. By developing a double-task principal-agent model between central government and local governments, this paper comes to a conclusion that the incentive incompatibility, in the discipline contract between central government and local governments, is likely the root cause of the weakness in policy execution.

Japan has experienced two fertility transitions, the first a decline from high to the replacement level of about 2.1 children per woman shortly after World War II and the second a decline since the mid-1970s from replacement to very low total fertility rates (TFR) of 1.3–1.4 children per woman. While the first transition stemmed primarily from declining rates of childbearing among married couples, the second transition has been related almost entirely to the postponement of marriage and childbearing. And it now looks like substantial numbers of Japanese women and men will never marry and will remain childless. Improved education and labor-market opportunities for young women, combined with decreasing regular employment for young men, is likely leading to the postponement or avoidance of marriage. In addition, the combination of rising economic opportunities in the workplace and unequal gender relations at home make the traditional marriage package particularly unattractive for young Japanese women. Concerned about very low fertility and rapid population aging, the Japanese government has introduced various family policies and programs since the early 1990s. These consist of three major components: (1) childcare services; (2) parental leave schemes; and (3) monetary assistance in the form of child allowances. Despite these efforts, Japan’s family policy appears to have been largely ineffective in the sense that strains, especially on working mothers, have not been alleviated and fertility has remained very low.

The Chinese government has implemented several policies to promote the development of childcare services. However, Chinese childcare services are facing a dilemma rather than flourishing. Against this background, this study intends to reveal the development process of the Chinese childcare service from prosperity to stagnation, the dilemmas that arise during this process, and the reasons why they face these dilemmas. Based on the grounded theory methodology, we interviewed 13 childcare institutions in Wuhan, coded the data, and formed a theoretical framework. We found that childcare services have undergone four development stages: rise, face dilemmas, attempt to Re-Rise, and Prefer to Stable. During the development process, childcare services are faced with four dilemmas: the external dilemma of lacking support, the internal dilemma in operation, the teacher dilemma of low quality and high turnover, and the parent dilemma of demands that cannot be met. We analyzed the reasons behind these issues and proposed suggestions to help Chinese childcare services boom again.

With the rapid social change in Chinese society, the Chinese government launched a series of educational policies for supporting national development. Policies on public school admission in compulsory education (Grades 1–9) have been amended at both the central and local levels to accommodate national needs. Meanwhile, local governments (at the city and district levels) also released their regulations on public school admission in compulsory education to meet requests from the central government and demands from local interest groups. This chapter interprets how gaps of policies on public school admission to junior high schools at central and local levels came out and shaped inequalities in admission to public lower secondary education at the school level. It reviews policy changes from the 1980s to 2011 in public school admission to uncover the diversity of public school admission policy at different administration levels. Moreover, it analyzes the interaction between the central and local governments to visualize how the power relationship between governments at different levels shaped the implementation of public school admission policy at the lower secondary education level. Analysis of interviews with stakeholders, such as school principals, local education officials, scholars, and managers of private tutoring institutes, is utilized to explain further how policy making and implementation affect the practice of student placement to public junior high schools in Beijing.

After over a decade of administrative and economic reform in mainland China, the center has become increasingly remote and less important for many localities. In many ways, the mobilization capacity of the central government has been weakened. Central government policies are often ignored and local officials are often more interested in personal projects than in centrally directed economic plans. In this study of local government and politics in China, the author explores when and why local government officials comply with policy directives from above. Drawing on interviews with government officials in various municipalities and a review of county records and other government documents, he provides the first in-depth look at policy implementation at the county and township levels in the PRC. The book examines the impact of the Chinese cadre system on the behavior of local officials, local party and government structure, relationships among various levels of Chinese local government, policy supervision mechanisms at local levels, village governance of China, and more.