Policy processes in China: a systematic review of the multiple streams framework

The multiple stream framework (MSF) helps explain why policy makers address some issues but not others. Although the framework was originally developed in the USA, scholars argue that it has universal explanatory power across political systems and have called for applications to authoritarian settings. In response, we conduct a systematic review of China-focused MSF research, including 22 English-language articles and 156 Chinese-language articles. We show an increase in publications and identify education and social policy as the two most studied areas. Based on the reviewed articles, we highlight four key themes pertaining to China’s policy process: the dominance of the political stream, the limited role of the national mood, managerial issues in the problem stream, and stream dependence. In addition to a need to conceptualise and test how these aspects shape policy outputs and outcomes, we argue that, if the framework is to contribute to a better understanding of China’s policy process, future MSF research should not only venture into unexplored policy areas but also ought to be more explicit and transparent in terms of operationalisation and focus more on analysing causal relationships. Other research priorities include comparative and critical analysis of MSF hypotheses in other non-democracies.