Creating change in a hierarchical system: Lessons from poverty alleviation in China

Publication by Zhiqi Xu and Wil Hout

In 'Policy Windows in an Authoritarian System: How alignment, Leadership Signals, and Disasters Enabled Policy Entrepreneurship in China's Poverty Alleviation', PhD researcher Zhiqi Xu and Professor Wil Hout show how a government-organized NGO (GONGO) applied a successful campaign to alleviate poverty in China.

Countryside in China with mountains in background
Feibai Huang

Published in Review of Policy Research, the article discusses how Organization C* successfully promoted Britevilla* - a poverty alleviation model - as part of China's anti-poverty campaign.

They argue that the campaign was successful because:

  1. the problem was framed as severe and politically salient 
  2. the proposal aligned with central priorities and 
  3. sufficient local capacity existed to translate the model into practice

They further argue that the case of Britevilla shows how GONGOs can broker innovation in an authoritarian polity and suggest that local governments under strong central steering may adopt field-tested models from trusted intermediary actors.

Read the full article online

'Policy Windows in an Authoritarian System: How alignment, Leadership Signals, and Disasters Enabled Policy Entrepreneurship in China's Poverty Alleviation', Review of Policy Research, 13 July 2026.

Read the full article here
PhD student
Professor
More information
  • Organization C and Britevilla are pseudonyms used to safeguard confidentiality.
Related links
Crisis, Politics and Law Academic Team

Compare @count study programme

  • @title

    • Duration: @duration
Compare study programmes