Institutionalized governance processes

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2000

During China's 11th five-year plan (2006-10), bureaucrats began to take substantial actions on environmental protection, making major investments in pollution control infrastructure and forcing the shutdown of thousands of outdated facilities and production lines. This was not accomplished through meaningful reform of a notoriously weak environmental law regime. Rather, Chinese authorities turned to cadre evaluationthe system for top-down bureaucratic personnel assessmentsto set high-priority, quantitative environmental targets designed to mobilize governors, mayors, and stateowned enterprise leaders in every corner of China's massive bureaucracy. While conventional analysis has primarily viewed this effort through the lens of environmental protection, this Article argues that "environmental cadre evaluation" is better understood as something more fundamental. Chinese authorities have embraced environmental cadre evaluation as a tool for limiting risks to the party-state's hold on power, using environmental protection in an unexpected way to deliver economic growth and social stability. Environmental objectives have been elevated, but primarily to the extent they support these other values as well. But implementation problems inherent to this top-down approach abound. Local agents falsify information and shut down pollution control equipment. Closed factories are secretly reopened. These problems create an imperative for reform. Of the initiatives already under way, governance reforms that strengthen public supervision have particular advantages for resolving institutional pathologies that limit the effectiveness of China's environmental efforts. By examining why and how Chinese leaders have elevated environmental priorities through the cadre evaluation system, this Article seeks to offer insight into a number of broader ongoing debatesabout environmental regulation in developing countries, accountability and regime survival in authoritarian states, and legal development in China.

This paper examines the connection between China's domestic governance and its involvement in global governance in environmental protection by studying the major actors and issues involved in the interaction between the domestic and international spheres of activities. These actors include international institutions, national and local governments, nongovernmental organisations, and others. The paper demonstrates that China has made some substantive progress in protecting its environment, but much more needs to be done. Internationally it seems to lack the will or the capability to make much contribution towards global environmental governance. However, because of its huge aggregate size, what it does or does not do to avert environmental degradation at home could have a significant impact on collective efforts to protect the environment at the global level.

Third World Quarterly, 2008

China: An International Journal, 2021

What caused China to decide to protect the environment in the 1970s? Was it a result of domestic political changes or of developments in international environmental politics? While the decision to introduce comprehensive modern environmental policies in China has had arguably a long-term impact on environmental governance, few studies have scrutinised the early decision-making process. This article attempts to address the void in scholarship. Adopting the multiple streams framework, the authors argue that the origins of environmental policy in China arose from the confluence of three streams-problem identification, political tensions and policy choices-under Premier Zhou Enlai's sponsorship. The new ecological perspective arising from the environmental policy emphasises scientific principles and technocratic solutions, lending a contrast to an ideological approach that had characterised the previous decades. This process was accompanied by the new political role of an environmentalist group consisting primarily of bureaucrats and scientists who mobilised international experience to identify appropriate technological solutions. This article analytically traces the historical context, problem identification, policy entrepreneurship and key policy instruments that characterised the first phase of Chinese environmental policies. The authors discuss the extent to which key elements of China's environmental policies today may still be shaped by the technocratic approach in the initial phase.

Asia Pacific Journal of Public Administration, 2014

The special issue is introduced here by considering the state of the environment and environmental governance in the PRC. While significant, substantial developments in legislation and policymaking remain insufficient to tackle the degradation of the environment and the increasing saliency of environmental issues in Chinese politics. Tremendous challenges remain in the areas of natural resources governance, environmental health, and transition paths in agriculture and urban development. They need to be addressed by an even stronger commitment of the Chinese leadership, accompanied by significant reforms in the areas of environmental litigation, the transparency of local government decision-making, and the capacity of the self-organisation of Chinese citizens in mobilising on environmental issues.

Cambridge University Press eBooks, 2021

views expressed are my own and do not necessarily reflect the positions of my university or any of its components. Unless otherwise indicated, translations of Chinese law provisions are not official.

Public Administration and Development, 1994

In the past decade, Guangzhou (Canton), China, has produced mixed results in water pollution control: it has been successful in limiting pollution from industrial sources than from domestic ones. This article examines the case by reference to a growing body of literature in institutional analysis. The central arguments are that institutions affect the governance and management of natural resources by allocating decision-making authorities among different individuals, agencies and levels of governments, by affecting whether rules and regulations can be effectively enforced and by creating different incentive structures. These arguments help to explain the divergent governmental efforts and outcomes in the two types of water pollution control in Guangzhou. The article concludes by discussing the case's theoretical and practical implications.

Environmental Science & Policy, 2012

East Asia, 2009

To redress its deteriorating environment, Chinese leaders have elevated the environmental agenda in its political discourse, especially at the recent 17th Party Congress. In this article, I answer whether the changes and reforms enacted at the 17th Party Congress and codified in the National Eleventh Five-year Plan for Environmental Protection (PEP) address the flaws of the Chinese environmental governance regime. First I identify the critical shortcomings of China's environmental governance. Then I examine the PEP, focusing on the reforms that correspond with each of these shortcomings. I find that the PEP reforms are insufficient in addressing the shortcomings of the Chinese environmental governance regime. However, in examining empirical evidence, I find that despite almost non-existent institutional reforms, China's environmental performance has improved. Finally, in the conclusion, I summarize my findings, examine the implications of the paradoxical increase in environmental performance without corresponding governance reform, and suggest areas of future research. Keywords China . Eleventh five-year plan for environmental protection . Environmental politics . Institutional reform . 17th Party Congress In the past few decades, economic growth in the People's Republic of China (PRC) has been staggering, with annual double digit growth rates. However, rapid industrialization has been costly as rapid growth and development has transformed

Society and Natural Resources, 2018

This paper examines the acute socioecological crisis in the Minqin region of China’s Gansu province beginning in the 1980s and the multilevel, governmental response to that crisis in the first two decades of the 21st century. Drawing on extensive field research and interviews in the area, supplemented by analysis of available data, the paper presents a detailed case study of the development and implementation of the Shiyang River Watershed Restoration Plan in the period 2007–15. The case illustrates how conflicting policy objectives of the central state-led conservation project shaped patterns of interaction between local government officials, cadres, and farmers in Minqin County as well as ensuing outcomes and challenges in policy implementation. The study finds that top-level declaration of ecological and social issues in the watershed as a national security issue incentivized local government officials and cadres to overlook the Plan’s provision for local consultation, in favor of meeting binding ecological and economic targets. It contributes to scholarship on environmental authoritarianism, illuminating structural factors and institutional constraints that shape local government officials’ and cadres’ behavior in a centrally administered environmental policy context.