Unraveling Policy Implementation in China: the case of 'Wiping out the Criminals'

Abstract

Policy implementation under China’s fragmented authoritarianism is a problem. The multilevel political structure, dual leadership and coordination problem lead to different types of undesired results, from policy distortion to formalism and fulfilling the targeting rather than achieving goals. Previous studies explore the incentives and outcome of policy distortion, mostly in rural or grass-root level. Yet we know little about how policy distortion happens in each level of government? To what extent it is distorted from level to level? What aspects of policy are more likely to be adjusted? The Recent campaign of “Wiping out the criminals” (Saohei Chu’er扫黑除恶) offers a good opportunity for us to examine the policy implementation process. Additionally, the campaign itself is worth studying for its scale of mobilization, in terms of both level of government and range of work units.