Authority Versus Competition: Intergovernmental Interactions and Subnational Policy Adoption in Climate Policy

ABSTRACT In the face of increasingly complex environmental challenges, subnational governments play a critical role in implementing climate policies. This study investigates how intergovernmental interactions—specifically formal authority interactions and informal competitive interactions—shape the adoption of climate policies by Chinese provincial governments. Drawing on panel data from 31 provinces between 2003 and 2018, the study constructs a two‐dimensional analytical framework to assess how formal authority interactions and informal competitive interactions combine to influence subnational policy adoption. Our findings indicate that formal authority interactions significantly promote provincial policy adoption, while informal competitive interactions follow an inverted “N‐shaped” trajectory characterized by initial suppression, subsequent promotion, and final suppression. Overall, the impact of informal competitive interactions on policy adoption is primarily inhibitory, with limited positive effects emerging during the promotion phase. Informal competitive interactions negatively moderate the influence of formal authority interactions, leading to weakened and distorted positive effects on policy adoption. This study contributes to policy adoption theories by emphasizing the dual roles of power and competition. Moreover, by demonstrating that informal competitions can inhibit the positive effects of formal authoritative interactions on policy adoption, it also enriches scholarly understanding of the dynamics of intergovernmental competition in multilevel governance systems.