Issue Scenarios and Multiple Functions of Policy Experiments——Taking the Reform of Relatively Centralized Power of Administrative License as an Example
Policy experiment is the common discourse narrative of China's reform,from the center to locals,leaders of all levels positively endorse the experimental path of policy innovation.To promote policy innovation and governance transition,policy experiments are carried out through local piloting,constructing issue-learning networks,strengthening multi-actor interactions,and leveraging multiple sources for cogni-tive learning.From the perspective of uncertainty,the authors propose the"issue scenario-functional posi-tioning"framework for policy experiment,distinguishing four types of policy trials,namely,generative tri-al,testing trial,advocacy trial,and expansion trial,to analyze the functional positioning of different exper-iment types.Generative trials can be applied to deeply uncertain decision-making issues.Given the uncer-tainty of both the options and the value of the policy intervention,the decision-making system proposes conceptual visionary goals,sends new signals,and encourages local governments to conduct innovative ex-plorations to transform the visionary goals into operational programs.Testing trials,for their part,can be applied in cases of uncertainty about the policy intervention's internal validity.The decision-making sys-tem learns by evaluation through localized pilots in scenarios with policy options already identified.Advoca-cy trials can be used for external validity uncertainty.By implementing trials on a wider scale,the decision-making system draws lessons from the differences and further calibrates the policy instruments.Expansion trials focus on scenarios in which both the internal and external validity of the policy instrument have been tested.Based on this,the decision-making system expands the new concepts and tools to a wider range of application scenarios through issue reconstruction.Examining the reform process of relatively centralized administrative license,it has experienced the evolution of local innovation,multi-actor participation,pilot expansion and issue reposition.The policy experiment has played multiple functions such as proposal gen-eration,effect testing,experience promotion,and governance transition.These functions are interconnec-ted and together constitute the functional map of policy experiments.In the reform process,multiple actors have maintained continuous inter-governmental learning,through conceptual learning to transform ambigu-ous goals into concrete proposals,and then by evaluation,demonstration and iterative learning to incorpo-rate successful local experiences into national policies.As shown in the case study,the uncertainty of the policy issue has a direct impact on experiment type selection,and at different stages of the process,there is variability in experimental policy modes of organization and functional positioning.
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