Politicalized empowered learning and complex policy implementation: Targeted poverty alleviation in China's county governments

Abstract The implementation of complex policies is of critical significance for the achievement of many central governments' policy expectations. How do local governments implement complex policies? By using a structured‐learning framework constructed from the governance‐localization perspective, we evaluated the mode three Chinese counties employed to implement the targeted poverty alleviation (TPA) policy. We found poverty alleviation task teams were the core TPA practitioners, and the implementation mode was politicalized empowered learning. Local governments reconstructed their implementation structures through the establishment of politicised project organisations. By involving and braiding multiple policy actors, vertical and horizontal conflicts were resolved, and collective action structures were constructed. They also constructed governance mechanisms for policy learning. Top‐down policy knowledge was translated and shared; bottom‐up local knowledge was produced; and, policy knowledge and local knowledge were integrated. The relationships between implementation structures, policy learning, and political steering led to diverse and unexpected policy implementation outcomes.