Institutionalized trial and error: a turn to rule-based policy experimentation in China

As confirmed by previous studies, experimentation-based policymaking in China is a highly versatile, pragmatic style that sharply contrasts with the more legalistic, bureaucratic policy approaches. Analyzing the history and recent development of rural reform experimental zones (RREZs), the authors demonstrate that China’s unorthodox policy experimentation has been gradually adapted to function smoothly within the country’s hierarchical bureaucratic structure governed by formal rules. The process of institutionalizing experimentation started in the early 2010s as a response to the nationwide promotion of “top-level design” and the rule of law with Chinese characteristics. The institutionalization has strengthened the procedural stability, legality, and political accountability of experimentation-based policymaking in China. Contrary to the popular interpretation of this change as a sign of notable reduction in decentralized policy entrepreneurship, the case of the RREZs shows that the rule-based institutionalized policy experimentation model continues much of the legacy of the traditional model and still functions as a laboratory for testing intensive policy reform experiments in China.