Political leadership, preference disclosure, and regulatory behavior: China’s film regulation in the information processing perspective

Abstract How does preference disclosure by political principals shape regulatory outcomes downstream? While existing literature approaches this question in terms of principal-agent maneuvers, we argue that how leaders reveal their policy preferences and the effect on regulatory behavior can be understood through the lens of information processing. In-depth interviews with elite actors in China’s film sector indicate that leaders facing elite contestation limit disclosure to stabilize coalition support, whereas leaders free from such contestation often comment directly and expansively on regulatory decisions, while tying their revealed preferences to “big picture” considerations beyond the business of filmmaking. The expanded scope and scale of disclosure following regime consolidation transformed the informational environment for the film sector, prompting regulators to prioritize out-of-domain issues and curtail discretionary action to mitigate political risk. The findings point to the informational determinants of regulatory behavior in comparative settings.