Public health emergency plans reflect the strong determination of the Chinese government to prevent, control, and eliminate the hazards of public health emergencies, to protect and promote public health, and to lay a solid foundation for effective epidemic prevention and control. Based on Smith’s policy implementation process theory, we have conducted a field study in 44 townships from 22 provinces across China. We find that rural communities, as the main battlefields for epidemic prevention and control, face the problem of ritualization of public health emergency plans, resulting in a state of ‘substantial system ritualization’, which, to some extent, only has symbolic or ornamental value. Substantial system ritualization is embodied in functional-failure ritualization, functional-delay ritualization, functional-vacancy ritualization, and functional-devaluation ritualization. In this article, we explore these four forms of ritualization and the reasoning underlying them, contributing new insights and theoretical innovations.

rural community,public health emergency,emergency plan,ritualization