Institutional Network Relationship of Chinese Public Crisis Governance System—Based on the Quantitative Comparative Analysis of Policies during SARS and COVID-19

After experiencing many public crisis events, such as SARS in 2003 and COVID-19 in 2020, the Chinese public crisis governance system has been improved from its initial state. The distribution structure and cooperation network among various government departments in China have become more complex. How to accurately clarify the relationship between the various departments in the existing governance system has become an important issue of the Chinese public crisis governance system. Based on the perspective of networked research, this article examines the network relationship between institutions in the Chinese public crisis governance system from the two dimensions of network centrality and network density. Using the bibliometric method to use public policies released in 2003 and 2020 as data samples and the two large-scale institutional reforms in 2003 and 2018 as the time nodes, this paper conducts a comparative analysis of the institutional network relationship of the Chinese public crisis governance system during different periods. The research shows that the network relationship among institutions in the Chinese public crisis governance system has changed from a centralized type to a diverse type; there is a trend of expansion in network relations; the legalization of governance networks is strengthened and the core of the network is transformed into the direct leadership of the Party Committee; and the overall network structure is experiencing a rational evolution.