TITLE:
An Analysis on the Hindrances of the Implementation of the CTG Switching Policies in Rural Areas in Hebei Province: A Smith Policy-Implementing-Process Framework
AUTHORS:
Yishu Ren
KEYWORDS:
Coal-to-Gas, Policy Implementation, Hindrances, The Smith Policy-Implementing-Process Framework
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Social Sciences,
Vol.8 No.8,
August
6,
2020
ABSTRACT: To improve the air quality, Chinese governments issued a series of
policies to carry out the coal-to-gas (CTG) transition. However, the
implementation of CTG switching policies has been hindered in practice, which
has caused a lot of negative effects. Therefore, this essay aims to analyze the
hindrances of the implementation of CTG switching policies in rural areas in
Hebei province by using Qingzhou Town as a case, employing interviews on officials
from implementing organizations and the questionnaire survey method for rural
residents. The Smith Policy-Implementing-Process Framework (the Smith model)
was used as the theoretical framework to provide a complete analysis of policy implementation hindrances regarding
idealized policy, implementing organization, target group, and environmental
factors. According to the survey results, there were 10 main hindrances including
the problem with policy design, such as simplified policy goal and
one-size-fits-all problem; the lack of flexibility, excessive implementation by
the implementing organization; target group’s weak environmental awareness,
insufficient economic incentives, and low level of participation and policy
understanding; several environmental factors, such as the imperfect supervision
and performance evaluation mechanism, the ineffective market mechanism, limited
gas resource channels, and insufficient infrastructure.