Research On The Diffusion Path And Implementation Effect Of Regional Public Policy Innovation Based On The River Chief System Policy

As one of the effective means to meet the needs of public governance,regional public policy innovation,including the original innovation and the diffusion of regional public policy,is widely used in the practice of public governance by governments at all levels in China.The empirical research object of this paper,the River(Lake)Chief System,is an original innovation of regional environmental policy from Wuxi Municipal government.It originated from the water pollution and supply crisis caused by the outbreak of blue-green algae in Taihu Lake in 2007,and quickly spread to other provinces and cities in China through horizontal and vertical paths in a few short years.On the one hand,in view of the fact that after the original innovation of regional public policy,including the River Chief System,had spread to different regions in practice,the effect of policy implementation has certain regional heterogeneity.On the other hand,there are great differences between policy incentives and policy diffusion mechanisms under different diffusion paths,which can be regarded as one of the main reasons for the heterogeneity of policy implementation effect in different types of policy areas.Therefore,this paper uses the DID method to empirically test the policy effect of the River Chief System between the original innovation area and the policy areas under different diffusion paths,including the effect of river basin pollution control,the effect of pollution reduction and the characteristics of pollution prevention and control,so as to explore in addition to the influence of the internal factors in the process of policy implementation,which are often involved in the literature,Whether the regional differences in the implementation effect of regional public policy innovation diffusion can be explained by the heterogeneity of policy innovation diffusion process at the same time.The main conclusions are as follows:(1)From the perspective of basin pollution control effect,compared with nonpolicy areas,the River Chief System has achieved the policy goal of improving water quality to a certain extent,and the policy effect of the River Chief System in policy areas is stronger under the vertical diffusion path.(2)From the perspective of pollutant emission reduction effect,compared with Wuxi,the original innovation area of the River Chief System,there is a certain loss of policy emission reduction effect in the areas where the River Chief System is implemented through policy diffusion.The retention degree of policy emission reduction effect in the vertical diffusion path is higher than that in the horizontal diffusion path.Especially in the field of agriculture and life,the policy areas under the horizontal diffusion path have not even achieved significant emission reduction effect compared with the nonpolicy areas.This shows that:① only from the achievement of the goal of direct governance pollution reduction,the original innovation of regional public policy aiming at the fundamental governance needs of the region is still the optimal solution of the problem of public governance.② For environmental policies such as the River Chief System,the policy diffusion through vertical path can achieve the expected emission reduction target more effectively than that under horizontal path.(3)From the perspective of pollution prevention and control characteristics of the River Chief System,the strongest emission reduction effect of the River Chief System in original innovation areas is partly achieved by inhibiting output activities,which may be due to the urgency of pollution control demand in original innovation areas;while in other areas where the River Chief System is implemented through policy diffusion,the economic effect of the policy is not significant.