Symbolic Governance and Rural Industrial Revitalization: A Spatial and Quantitative Assessment of Sustainable Development

Rural industrial revitalization is critical for achieving sustainable development and alleviating rural poverty globally. In many developing countries, rural growth remains heavily dependent on fiscal investment. This study investigates the role of China’s county-level honorary titles, a non-fiscal symbolic governance tool, in shaping rural industrial development. Drawing on symbolic governance theory and spatial heterogeneity perspectives, we construct a Rural Industrial Revitalization Index (RIRI) using the entropy weight–Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to an Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) method and apply Geographically Weighted Regression (GWR) to analyze 167 counties in Hebei Province, China. Results show that honorary titles have greater explanatory power than traditional infrastructure measures in explaining regional variations in RIRI, exhibit significant spatial heterogeneity, and are associated with reduced regional disparities. These findings underscore the value of symbolic policy instruments in supporting sustainable and inclusive rural industrial growth beyond fiscal reliance, offering practical implications for policymakers worldwide.