Diverging Priorities in Multi-Level Governance: Empirical Evidence from China’s Electricity Market Reforms (1985–2023)

China’s electricity market reform has unfolded over several decades within a complex multi-level governance system involving both central and provincial governments. Although prior studies recognize that central–local interactions shape the direction and pace of reform, systematic evidence is limited on whether policy priorities have evolved coherently or diverged across time and regions. To address this gap, we apply the Structural Topic Model (STM) to 13,234 policy documents issued between 1985 and 2023 to identify three core reform agendas and quantify the temporal and spatial evolution of policy attention. Results show that (1) price marketization (P) consistently dominates the central government’s reform agenda, reflecting a long-standing emphasis on market efficiency and institutional restructuring; (2) provincial governments allocate relatively more attention to low-carbon transition (L), often alongside reduced emphasis on price marketization (P), indicating a structured reweighting of priorities across governance levels; (3) comparisons across eight major regulatory zones reveal pronounced spatial heterogeneity: resource-dependent regions emphasize market and pricing reform, renewable-rich areas prioritize low-carbon development, and economically advanced coastal regions focus on service improvement and regulatory modernization. These findings provide systematic empirical evidence that policy coherence in China’s multi-level governance system is dynamic rather than static. Central–local divergence is best interpreted not as policy noncompliance but as structured regional differentiation and adaptive governance in reform implementation.