Logic Analysis of Public Policy Failure under Smith Model—Taking the Central-Local Implementation Deviation of Epidemic Prevention and Control as an Example

Nowadays, the analysis of the process of public policy implementation is an extremely important issue in political science. Policy failure means that the policy cannot play its due role. It means the waste of resource input, and it also means that it will have a negative impact on society. Following the COVID-19 pandemic, the nation united to wage a people’s war, a general war, and a resistance war, all under the direction of the Party Central Committee. Simultaneously, as the COVID-19 pandemic is being tackled, some policies are being developed that contradict the basic policy’s idea, or the policy is being implemented differently. The phenomena of “absolute zero clearing” “layer-by-layer plus code” and “one-size-fits-all” have contributed to the policy’s failure and prevented it from having the desired impact. Therefore, it is particularly important to study why the epidemic prevention and control policy will fail. Based on Smith’s policy implementation model, this paper comprehensively analyzes the reasons for the failure of the new coronavirus prevention and control policy from four influencing factors: idealized policy, implementing agency, target group and implementation environment, and puts forward corresponding solutions and optimization paths, in order to provide reference for China’s public policy research and policy practice.