Open Access Journal Article

Do policy coordination dynamics matter? A quantitative analysis perspective on China's scientific and technological policy evolution

by Yu Yang a  and  Nur Ajrun Khalid a,*
a
School of Social Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang, MALAYSIA
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
JIE  2023, 10; 1(2), 10; https://doi.org/10.58567/jie01020004
Received: 15 March 2023 / Accepted: 10 May 2023 / Published Online: 1 July 2023
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Abstract

Even though policy coordination is one of the oldest challenges that governments have to confront, as problems evolve and "New Public Management" concepts emerge, it has become even more essential. The current literature on policy coordination among government agencies, however, shows little regarding the way coordination is managed under centralized political systems. This study, based on the science and technology (S&T) policy documents issued by China's central government agencies between 1978 and 2020, provides a quantitative and dynamic analysis of the coordination of policies in China and presents a comprehensive overview of policy coordination paths and processes in centralized political systems. As a result, it provides a way that contributes to the analytical methods available for quantitatively analyzing policy documents. On the other hand, the key findings of the study show that, first, state council-administered ministries have taken the lead in coordinating policy while other types of organizations have collaborated in more subordinate capacities. Second, national themes that are democratic and driven by demand have been the core concern of coordination activities, such as social development, high-tech industrialization, and rural S&T. Third, policy coordination has evolved continuously and has mostly contributed to interpreting macrostrategies and implementing more specific implementation measures.

Keywords: Policy Coordination; Scientific and Technological Policy; New Public Management; Quantitative Analysis; China;
Copyright: © 2023 by Yang and Khalid. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
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ACS Style
Yang, Y.; Khalid, N. A. Do policy coordination dynamics matter? A quantitative analysis perspective on China's scientific and technological policy evolution. Journal of Information Economics, 2023, 1, 10. https://doi.org/10.58567/jie01020004
AMA Style
Yang Y, Khalid N A. Do policy coordination dynamics matter? A quantitative analysis perspective on China's scientific and technological policy evolution. Journal of Information Economics; 2023, 1(2):10. https://doi.org/10.58567/jie01020004
Chicago/Turabian Style
Yang, Yu; Khalid, Nur A. 2023. "Do policy coordination dynamics matter? A quantitative analysis perspective on China's scientific and technological policy evolution" Journal of Information Economics 1, no.2:10. https://doi.org/10.58567/jie01020004
APA style
Yang, Y., & Khalid, N. A. (2023). Do policy coordination dynamics matter? A quantitative analysis perspective on China's scientific and technological policy evolution. Journal of Information Economics, 1(2), 10. https://doi.org/10.58567/jie01020004

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