Policy Orientation and Diffusion in Responsive Governance: Responses to the Chinese 2018 Vaccine Scandal

Abstract

Over the past decades, authoritarian countries have used responsiveness to improve their governance in an effort to sustain themselves and lengthen their duration. One important determinant for subnational governments to govern according to mandates from the central government is their fiscal capacity. However, I argue that policy orientation and horizontal diffusion, rather than fiscal capacity, shape subnational governments’ responsiveness in governance. Using provincial governments’ responses during the Chinese 2018 vaccine scandal, I find strong evidence to support that provincial governments’ policy orientation in public health and governance diffusion from neighboring provinces precipitated their responses, regardless of their overall economic capacity and vertical pressure from the center. I also demonstrate that one-level-down system in cadre management is the mechanism that enables policy orientation to result in quick responses from subnational governments. Statistical findings are robust to various alternative specifications, including models that account for spatial interdependence.

The diffusion of Responses