Local Institutional Innovation and Path-Dependency of Rural Land Experimentation

This chapter analyses the actual operation of rural land reform in Wujin by assessing the effectiveness and selectiveness of local implementation and the policy innovations generated in the process. It answers the third research question by showing how the Wujin district government united township governments and rural collectives to form an implementation alliance and engaged the initially disadvantaged Changzhou prefecture government in collaboration. The evolving roles of development-oriented governments at the district and township levels are clarified. The analysis further reveals the path-dependent impacts of Wujin’s longstanding governance structure and the Sunan model, in which strong governmental intervention and the pivotal role of rural collective land in economic growth have been institutionalized. Drawing on policy entrepreneurship and experimentation perspectives, the chapter identifies Wujin as a proactive policy entrepreneur that selectively responded to central directives and advanced reform through institutional innovation despite the absence of central financial support, with reform trajectories shaped by local priorities and constraints.