PMR — pp. 1-25 2026-09-09 Original Unlocking the transformative potential of design: reflections from practice on navigating barriers to designing for societal transformation
Geert Brinkman, Arwin van Buuren, Suzan Christiaanse, Irene Fierloos, Wiesje Korf
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.
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.
PA — 2026-09-07
Original How Artificial Intelligence Facilitates Collaborative Governance? Research on Mechanisms and Multi‐Dimensional Effects Based on Triple Entities
PSJ 54/4 2026-09-07
Original Evolving Contexts and Diverging Strategies: Federalism and the Politics of Immigrant Welfare Exclusion in the US
Ping Xu, Ling Zhu, Sebastian Ege
PSJ 54/4 2026-09-07
Original Ethnoracial Characteristics and Police Abuse Within Mexico's Criminal Justice System
Arturo Luna Cancino, Javier Reyes‐Martínez
PA — 2026-09-06
Original Policy Entrepreneurs and Policy Change When Politicians Are Absent: The Inclusion of Autistic Individuals in Armed Forces
Ben Kizel, Nissim Cohen
JCC — pp. 1-15 2026-09-05 Original How Does Integrated Ethnic Education Policy Affect Tibetan Students’ National Identity?
GOV 39/4 2026-09-04
Original Dead Ends and Policy Change in Chinese Experimental Governance
Vincent Brussee
Abstract
ABSTRACT Not all policy change is expansive, yet non‐expansive trajectories remain underexamined. This article introduces the concept of dead ends: a stage of the policy process in which initiatives cease to develop or be implemented in their existing form, structuring subsequent policy change such as rollback, redirection, or termination. To examine such trajectories, the article combines large‐scale analysis of 27,103 policy experiments announced in the People's Republic of China between 2013 and 2018 with qualitative case studies. The findings suggest that a substantial majority—up to 90%—of experiments reach dead ends. These dead ends are associated with leadership turnover, policy complexity, and misalignment with bureaucratic incentives and socio‐economic conditions. Altogether, the article provides new frameworks for understanding alternative directions of policy change. In doing so, it also sheds new light on the adaptive capacity and structural constraints of China's governance system.
PSJ 54/4 2026-09-03
Original From Policy Legitimization to Blame Avoidance—Discursive Strategies During Denmark's Mink Culling Crisis