Polihot

PA — 2026-09-09 Original How Were Governance Pathways Formed for Public Service Co‐Production? A Contingency Perspective

PSJ 54/4 2026-09-09 Original Balancing Particularism and Universalism in Welfare Policy: Insights From China's Hukou Reform Liu Chen, Tom Christensen, Xufeng Zhu Abstract ABSTRACT Welfare policies often combine particularistic and universalistic elements, yet we know less about how shifts in this balance shape public attitudes toward vulnerable low‐status groups. This article develops a three‐dimensional framework for analyzing welfare policy, distinguishing among welfare scope, welfare benefits, and inclusion criteria. We argue that public attitudes toward lower‐status groups are shaped by the combined signal about the welfare deservingness hierarchy generated by the configuration of particularistic and universalistic elements across these dimensions. Because policy design packages convey a broader normative stance about who belongs and who deserves, they can influence perceptions of groups that are not directly targeted by a policy change, lowering or raising their perceived deservingness. Using difference‐in‐differences and regression discontinuity methods, we analyze Weibo posts during China's two‐round hukou reform. We find that shifts toward more particularistic policy configurations lead to more negative attitudes toward low‐skilled migrant workers, whereas shifts toward more universalistic configurations yield more positive attitudes. Subgroup analyses yield suggestive patterns across local economic contexts and individual characteristics. These findings have broader implications for research on welfare policy systems and for reform efforts regarding social integration.

PNAS 123/37 pp. e2600311123-e2600311123 2026-09-09 Original A role for self-regulatory control in the absence of ingroup preference Samuel A. W. Klein, Tessa Elizabeth Sadie Charlesworth, Daniel W. Heck, Mahzarin R. Banaji, Jeffrey W. Sherman

JCC — pp. 1-18 2026-09-08 Original Chinese Intellectual Influencers and the Construction of Algorithmized Nationalism: The Case of Jinri Toutiao Haiyan Wang, Zhengqing Yan, Lin Wu, Carwyn Morris

JOP — 2026-09-08 Original Beliefs and Racial Identity Norms among Black Americans: An Examination of How Black Americans Understand Racism Antoine Banks, Eric Groenendyk, Ja'nae Jackson, Erik Kimbrough, Mark Pickup

JPART — 2026-09-08 Original A Model of Agency Behavior in Participatory Budgeting: A Resource Dependence Perspective Seunghyun Kim Abstract Abstract Based on resource dependence theory, this article theorizes why government agencies adopt citizen proposals in participatory budgeting. Agencies depend on the executive budget office and the legislature for budget approval, which makes them face uncertainty in securing budgets from these political principals. In this context, agencies can adopt citizen proposals to present their requests as reflecting citizen demands, thereby increasing the probability of approval. Building on this logic, this study argues that the greater the uncertainty agencies face in their dependencies on principals, the more likely they are to depend on proposals. This argument is tested using multilevel mixed-effects logistic regression based on citizen proposals (N = 3,609) submitted through Korea’s national participatory budgeting initiative from 2020 through 2023. The results show that agencies with less financial support from the legislature or those with smaller budgets are more likely to adopt proposals, as they face greater uncertainty due to unstable budgetary flows or fewer response options to manage resource instability. Agencies are also more likely to adopt proposals when they previously secured greater funding through proposal adoption, but this effect weakens for larger-budget agencies or those receiving greater legislative support. These findings emphasize the strategic nature of proposal adoption and the role of resource dependence in agency responses to proposals.

PMR — pp. 1-27 2026-09-08 Original A fish rots from the head down: unpacking the trickle-down effect of leaders’ unethical pro-organizational behaviour (UPB) in the Chinese public sector

PMR — pp. 1-37 2026-09-07 Original When tasks feel unjustified: effects of illegitimate tasks on public servants’ citizen-oriented boundary-spanning behaviours

PA — 2026-09-07 Original Strategies for Public Administration Research: Insights From the Scholarship of Christopher Hood Ruth Dixon, Rozana Himaz, Maia King, Barbara Maria Piotrowska

PMR — pp. 1-34 2026-09-07 Original Performance-measurement systems as actors and boundary objects: a sociomaterial perspective to the provision of prison services Noel Hyndman, Mariannunziata Liguori