How can policy advocacy be effective? The impact of guiding environmental regulations on the policy implementation capacity of village-level river chiefs—based on the empirical test of 141 villages in 7 provinces

Guiding environmental regulation plays a crucial role in the implementation of village-level river chief policies, and it is important to explore how guiding environmental regulations affect the policy implementation capacity of village-level river chiefs. This study focuses on village-level river chiefs as the research subjects and aims to measure the intensity of environmental regulation guidance from their own perspective. By combining theoretical analysis and empirical research, we delve into the effects of guiding environmental regulations on the policy implementation capacity of village-level river chiefs. Our findings demonstrate a significant positive impact of guiding environmental regulations on the policy implementation capacity of village-level river chiefs. Mechanism analysis reveals that environmental cognition, technical cognition and institutional trust play mediating roles in the relationship between guiding environmental regulations and policy implementation capacity. Furthermore, heterogeneity analysis at the village level indicates that the impact of guiding environmental regulations on policy implementation capacity is more pronounced in the western region, where villages have a shorter establishment time of the river chief system and have a greater number of non-governmental river chiefs. At the individual level, heterogeneity analysis reveals that the impact of guiding environmental regulations on policy implementation capacity is more significant among individuals in lower education groups and those serving as representatives in the people's congress. Based on our research findings, this paper proposes countermeasures and suggestions to enhance the effectiveness of guiding environmental regulations. These include formulating scientific and reasonable guiding environmental regulation requirements, providing village-level river chiefs with enhanced governance resources, and emphasizing the mediating roles of environmental cognition, technical understanding and institutional trust. Additionally, we highlight the importance of enhancing the pertinence and universality of the specific content of guiding environmental regulations.