Marine plastic management policy agenda-setting in China (1985–2021): The Multi-stage Streams Framework

Abstract

Although numerous policies for mitigating marine plastic are now widely developing in the international community, describing and understanding the generation and implementation of policies is still a challenge. To illustrate the development of marine plastic management agenda-setting in China, this study modified the Multi-stage Streams Framework and used comprehensive operational variables to quantitate the problem, politics and policy streams in the policy evolution of marine plastic management in China from 1985 to 2021. The result shows that there is a significant gap of policy configuration between the central government and local governments on the policy field of prohibiting plastic usage and cleaning coastal areas, and the implementation discrepancy of local governments defeats the evolution of policy agenda on marine plastic management. Further analysis by the Multi-stage Streams Framework reveals that the government's attention to marine plastic has not been fully attracted because of inconspicuous conflicts and policy entrepreneurs' poor sensitivity to problems. This study indicates a necessity for further consideration of the adaptability of policy implementation by local governments, in order to mitigate the inconsistency of governance goals from intergovernmental conflicts in the evolution of the marine plastic policy agenda. The future promotion of ambitious marine plastic policies should diversify the identity of policy entrepreneurs to generate comprehensive policy recommendations supported by sufficient interdisciplinary researches. In general, this study provides the rationale for a comprehensive understanding of the plastic policy development in China and is beneficial for guiding policymakers to invest management resources to get the desired policy evolution.