Abstract:

The existing modes of “spontaneous exploration”， “top-down experimentation”， and “approval-based authorization” are proving increasingly inadequate in their capacity to fully capture and theoretically account for contemporary local government innovation patterns. In exploring approaches to promote local government innovation， the State Council’s major inspection program has institutionalized and normalized inspection practices， thereby catalyzing the emergence of a novel “inspection-based commendation” model for local governance innovation. Employing the biterm topic model （BTM） specifically optimized for short texts， this study performed a thematic analysis on exemplary local cases officially commended in the State Council’s major inspection program during the 2015-2022 period. The study reveals that the inspection-commendation mechanism serves as a pivotal model for local government innovation， effectively stimulating proactive innovations in economic growth， industrial transformation， risk prevention， and administrative deregulation. Furthermore， the innovation themes exhibit significant heterogeneity across temporal， regional， and hierarchical dimensions. This model not only expands existing theoretical frameworks by systematically characterizing the thematic distribution and evolutionary patterns of local government innovation in the new era， but also provides empirical evidence and theoretical guidance for advancing the modernization of government governance systems and capabilities.

Key words: inspection-based commendation, government innovation, central-local interaction, biterm topic model