(iPoster) Measuring Policy Operational Capacity through Policy Documents

• In Event: Poster Sessions: Public Administration & Political Organizations and Parties
  In Poster Session: Poster Session: Public Administration

Abstract

This paper develops a text-based methodology to measure policy operational capacity (POC) through computational analysis of policy documents. We introduce a framework combining latent semantic scaling (LSS) with comprehensive rule-based feature extraction to quantify two dimensions of operational capacity, target specificity and implementation specificity, directly from policy texts. Validated through three dimensions, content validation, convergent validation, and nomological validation, our approach provides a replicable quantitative measure that transcends traditional analyses. Applying this method to 49,114 policy documents published by the Chinese government and its departments (from 1996-2023), we demonstrate how textual analysis can precisely capture systematic variation in operational capacity across agencies (departments) and over time. The methodology offers an effective approach for comparative analysis of operational capacity through a massive amount of different policy documents across diverse contexts.

Authors

• Yiyuan Lu, East China University of Political Science and Law

• Haibing Yan, East China University of Political Science and Law