The dynamics of policy coordination: The case of China's science and technology policy-making.

This article presents a dynamic and quantitative analysis of science and technology (S&T) policy coordination among China's central government agencies from 1978 to 2019, addressing a gap in research on coordination in centralized political systems. Using 8,318 S&T policy documents—including 1,799 co-signed by multiple agencies—and employing a modified social network analysis that accounts for agency rank and number of co-signers, the study reveals that policy coordination has steadily increased, primarily involving ministries under the State Council (SC) in leading roles, with other agencies in supporting positions. Coordination efforts have focused on broad, national demand-oriented themes such as high-tech industrialization, rural S&T, and social development, reflecting alignment with evolving national strategies issued by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CCCPC) and the SC. The research identifies two coexisting coordination patterns in China's centralized system: authority-stimulated coordination driven by top-down planning and self-organized coordination emerging from inter-agency trust and shared goals, with the former currently dominant but the latter seen as essential for long-term effectiveness. This study contributes to understanding policy coordination mechanisms in centralized political contexts and offers methodological advances for quantitatively analyzing policy documents.