Poster #18 - Beyond Adoption: Priority Alignment and Policy Repositioning under Asymmetric Authority

• In Event: Friday Poster Reception

Abstract

Research on policy diffusion and policy transfer has traditionally conceptualized cross‑jurisdictional influence in terms of the adoption of policy instruments. This adoption‑centered perspective, while analytically tractable, obscures a prevalent mode of vertical policy change in multilevel systems characterized by asymmetric authority. In such systems, subordinate governments frequently respond to superior‑level priorities not through direct replication of policy tools, but through broader processes of policy repositioning that reshape sectoral status, institutional embeddedness, and governance trajectories over time. This paper develops a Priority Alignment Model of vertical policy diffusion to explain how superior‑level priority signals induce policy change under conditions where authority is hierarchical but implementation discretion remains substantial.

The model conceptualizes vertical policy diffusion as a staged process operating prior to, alongside, and sometimes independently of formal policy adoption. It identifies four analytically linked stages: priority shock, anticipatory alignment, symbolic and substantive dual‑track alignment, and institutional re‑embedding. The central mechanism is anticipatory alignment, whereby subordinate governments—under conditions of political uncertainty and resource dependence—proactively adjust agendas, organizational arrangements, and sectoral positioning in anticipation of how superior‑level priorities will shape future oversight, evaluation, and access to political or fiscal resources. Rather than compliance or learning driven by demonstrated effectiveness, anticipatory alignment reflects forward‑looking, risk‑sensitive behavior characteristic of governance under asymmetric authority.

The model further distinguishes between two interacting paths through which alignment unfolds. Symbolic alignment encompasses discursive reframing, agenda elevation, and organizational signaling that are highly visible to superior authorities but relatively low cost for subordinates. Substantive alignment, by contrast, involves material and institutional commitments, including budgetary allocations, regulatory empowerment, professionalization, and integration into mainstream service delivery. Drawing on policy diffusion scholarship and neo‑institutional theories of isomorphism and decoupling, the paper theorizes when symbolic alignment is likely to convert into durable institutional re‑embedding, and when it instead results in persistent symbolic compliance without substantive transformation. The analysis derives testable propositions regarding key scope conditions shaping these outcomes, including the durability and coherence of superior‑level priority signals, subordinate administrative capacity and fiscal space, and the degree of professional resistance within the policy domain.

The theoretical framework is illustrated through an empirical account of the governance of Chinese Traditional Medicine in Hong Kong, a subordinate yet institutionally distinct jurisdiction operating under asymmetric authority. The case demonstrates how vertical policy change can proceed through sectoral repositioning, anticipatory alignment, and dual‑track dynamics even in the absence of direct policy transplantation. By shifting the dependent variable of diffusion analysis from instrument adoption to policy repositioning, this paper extends diffusion and transfer theories and offers a generalizable analytical lens for understanding vertical policy change in hierarchical governance systems.

Author

• Wenjin Chen, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
  Presenting Author