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This study constructs a typology of innovation from the winning nominations of local government innovation award programs in the US and China, two countries with histories of subnational policy innovation, to reveal what types of policy initiatives local officials believe will improve governance in each country. I argue that improving governance is important as it serves as a main source of modern political legitimacy, regardless of regime type. To analyze if ideas of good governance differ by regime type, I classify local government innovation into six thematic areas, and then examine how each of these are expected to improve governance and thus contribute to political legitimacy. In China, I find that the predominant local innovations are in the area of governance and management, which demonstrate that government officials believe that reforming the democratic governance process will solve governance problems and enhance political legitimacy. In the United States, however, economic, social, cultural, and environmental areas occupied a larger proportion of government innovation, illustrating that local officials pay more attention to enhancing political legitimacy through improving the performance and quality of government services. This analysis shows that ideas of good governance, as revealed by local government innovation awards, differ across these two regime types. Although government officials in both regimes desire improved governance as a way to enhance political legitimacy, what that means in each country differs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the modern risk society, the general sense of collaborative governance is facing a profound crisis—poor governance efficiency due to the lack of authority. The paper introduces a case from China and finds a new mechanism in COVID-19 prevention and control which is called joint governance. Instead of the relatively equal status among multiple actors, joint governance is characterized by a dominant power forming alliances with other stakeholders. The political advantages that Beijing enjoys make it work. Our study suggests that joint governance is a new perspective of collaborative governance which brings politics back to administrative domains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]