Policy Entrepreneur, Civic Engagement and Local Policy Innovation in China: Housing Monetarisation Reform in Guizhou Province (政策企业家、公民参与与地方政策创新：以贵州住房货币化改革为例)

Abstract

Creating local policy innovations and extending successful local experiences to other localities and provinces or even up to the national level has been a distinctive feature of China's policymaking process during the reform period. However, insufficient academic effort has been spent on what promotes or hinders policy innovations at the local level and their dissemination. This article contributes by exploring the role of policy entrepreneurs in fostering local policy innovations, using the housing monetarisation reform experience in Guizhou province as an example. In this article I argue that the key decision‐maker, being a policy entrepreneur, plays a central role in fostering policy innovations. An important aspect of the policy entrepreneur's strategy is to promote civic engagement and to strengthen legitimacy by leveraging the popularity of innovative policy. By highlighting the role of the policy entrepreneur as a policy innovator and the strategy of involving civic engagement, this research contributes to the literature in both the policy entrepreneurship and local politics development in China.改革开放时期中国的政策决策过程呈现出一个显著特征，即政府积极推动地方政策创新并将成功的政策创新推广到其它地区、省份或者全国。然而，关于地方政策创新及其扩散受到何种因素的影响和制约，学界的研究并不充足。本文以贵州住房货币化改革为例，分析了政策企业家在推动地方政策创新中所扮演的重要角色：作为重要的决策者的政策企业家在政策创新过程中发挥了关键作用；政策企业家通过各种策略推动公民参与以增强政策创新的受欢迎程度，从而提升政策创新的合法性。通过强调政策企业家作为政策创新的首倡者的重要作用及其在推动公众参与所采用的各种策略，本文推进了政策企业家及中国地方政治等相关研究。