Article
Exploring Political Personalities: The Micro-Foundation of Local Policy Innovation in China
Governance
(2022)
Abstract
This article argues that policymakers' individual attributes influence their willingness to engage in policy innovation, and that this influence is responsive to, but not determined by, changes in the institutional structure. We derive these findings by employing principal component analysis of original data from surveys of local policymakers in China, to inductively locate different personalities. We find statistically significant personalities that influence a willingness to innovate, and that this influence is responsive to changes such as heightened risk. In addition to parsing the influence of extrinsic and intrinsic motivations on policy innovation, we further find that the traditional risk-acceptant policy-entrepreneur personality does not explain innovation well.
Keywords
- Policy Innovation and Diffusion,
- Innovative Personality,
- Policy Entrepreneurs,
- China,
- Authoritarianism,
- Evolutionary Approach
Disciplines
Publication Date
2022
Citation Information
Lewis, O.A., Teets, J.C. and Hasmath, R. (2022) “Exploring Political Personalities: The Micro-Foundation of Local Policy Innovation in China”, Governance 35(1): 103-122.