Towards Stringent Ecological Protection and Sustainable Spatial Planning: Institutional Grammar Analysis of China’s Urban–Rural Land Use Policy Regulations

Emerging hybrid governance models are transforming conventional approaches to land-use regulation by simultaneously enabling urban–rural development and enforcing ecological safeguards. This study investigates the regulatory mechanisms underpinning China’s urban–rural land-use policies through an innovative mixed-methods approach, integrating systematic text analysis and the Institutional Grammar Tool (IGT). Drawing on a comprehensive dataset of 62 national policy documents (2012–2024), we employ textual coding and thematic clustering to identify seven core policy pathways, ranging from territorial spatial planning to ecological protection. These pathways are further deconstructed using IGT to assess their regulatory intensity, revealing a tripartite governance model: (1) flexible AIC-strategies (e.g., land market mechanisms), which enable local experimentation by specifying actors, aims, and conditions without rigid obligations; (2) adaptive ADIC-norms (e.g., collective land reforms), which balance central directives with localized discretion through conditional deontic rules; and (3) rigid ADICO-rules (e.g., ecological redlines), which enforce absolute compliance through binding sanctions. Through systematic analysis of land use policy regulations, we reveal how China’s hybrid governance system operationalizes a tripartite institutional logic—maintaining rigid regulatory control (ADICO-rules) in ecologically critical zones, adaptive policy experimentation (ADIC-norms) in transitional areas, and flexible market-based instruments (AIC-strategies) in development zones—thereby dynamically reconciling environmental conservation with socioeconomic diversification. The study advances both institutional theory through its grammatical analysis of policy instruments and governance theory by transcending the traditional command-and-control versus flexible governance dichotomy. Practically, the research offers actionable insights for policymakers in emerging economies, emphasizing spatially differentiated regulation, dynamic monitoring system, and strategic coupling of binding rules with flexible implementation mechanisms.