Policy Change in the Context of Multiple–Streams Theory–Take China’s Centralized Drug Procurement Policy as an Example

Beijing Normal University, School of Government, 100875 Beijing, China

^* Corresponding author: daisybs@163.com

Abstract

As an important theory of policy process analysis, multiple–streams theory provides a highly explanatory analytical framework and perspective for exploring the dynamics of policy change. This paper uses multiple–streams theory to analyze the history of china’s drug procurement policy changes, found that the china’s drug procurement policy has gone through four development stages. Each change in drug procurement policy is due to a particular problem that is highlighted, focal issues enter the policy agenda when problem streams, policy streams and politics streams are highly coupled and the issue window opens, then the policy changes. This paper provides an outlook on the key directions of china’s drug procurement policy, in order to provide useful reference for the study of multiple–streams theory and the study of china’s drug procurement system.