Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Home

Authoritarian Environmentalism Undermined? Local Leaders’ Time Horizons and Environmental Policy Implementation in China

  • Sarah Eaton (a1) and Genia Kostka (a2)

Abstract

China's national leaders see restructuring and diversification away from resource-based, energy intensive industries as central goals in the coming years. On the basis of extensive fieldwork in China between 2010 and 2012, we suggest that the high turnover of leading cadres at the local level may hinder state-led greening growth initiatives. Frequent cadre turnover is intended primarily to keep local Party secretaries and mayors on the move in order to promote the implementation of central directives. While rotation does seem to aid implementation by reducing coordination problems, there are also significant downsides to local leaders changing office every three to four years. Officials with short time horizons are likely to choose the path of least resistance in selecting quick, low-quality approaches to the implementation of environmental policies. We conclude that the perverse effects of local officials’ short time horizons give reason to doubt the more optimistic claims about the advantages of China's model of environmental authoritarianism.

Copyright

Corresponding author

Email: eatonsarahb@gmail.com (corresponding author).

References

Hide All
Beeson, Mark. 2010. “The coming of environmental authoritarianism.” Environmental Politics 19(2), 276294.
Cai, Yongshun. 2004. “Irresponsible state: local cadres and image-building in China.” Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics 20(4), 2041.
Dionne, Kim Yi. 2011. “The role of executive time horizons in state responses to AIDS in Africa.” Comparative Political Studies 44(1), 5577.
Edin, Maria. 2003. “State capacity and local agent control in China: CCP cadre management from a township perspective.” The China Quarterly 173, 3552.
Gilley, Bruce. 2012. “Authoritarian environmentalism and China's response to climate change.” Environmental Politics 21(2), 287307.
Heilmann, Sebastian. 2008. “From local experiments to national policy: the origins of China's distinctive policy process.” The China Journal 59, 130.
Huang, Yasheng. 1996. Inflation and Investment Controls in China – The Political Economy of Central–Local Relations during the Reform Era. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Huang, Yasheng. 2002. “Managing Chinese bureaucrats: an institutional economics perspective.” Political Studies 50, 6179.
Josephson, Paul R. 2004. Resources under Regimes: Technology, Environment, and the State. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Kostka, Genia. 2013. “Environmental protection bureau leadership at the provincial level in China: examining diverging career backgrounds and appointment patterns.” Journal of Environmental Policy and Planning 15(1), 4163.
Kostka, Genia, and Hobbs, William. 2012. “Local energy efficiency policy implementation in China: bridging the gap between national priorities and local interests.” The China Quarterly 211, 765785.
Landry, Pierre. 2008. Decentralized Authoritarianism in China: The Communist Party's Control of Local Elites in the Post-Mao Era. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Lester, James P., and Bowman, Ann O.M.. 1989. “Implementing environmental policy in a federal system: a test of the Sabatier-Mazmanian model.” Polity 21(4), 731753.
Matland, Richard E. 1995. “Synthesizing the implementation literature: the ambiguity-conflict model of policy implementation.” Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory 5(2), 145174.
Mei, Ciqi. 2009. “Bringing the Politics Back In: Political Incentives and Policy Distortion in China.” PhD diss., University of Maryland.
O'Brien, Kelvin J., and Li, Lianjiang. 1999. “Selective policy implementation in rural China.” Comparative Politics 31(2), 167186.
Olson, Mancur. 1993. “Dictatorship, democracy, and development.” American Political Science Review 87(3), 567576.
Sabatier, Paul, and Mazmanian, Daniel. 1980. “The implementation of public policy: a framework of analysis.” Policy Studies Journal 8(4), 538560.
Seckington, Ian. 2007. “County leadership in China: a baseline survey.” Nottingham China Policy Institute, Discussion Paper 17.
Shearman, David J.C., and Smith, Joseph Wayne. 2007. The Climate Change Challenge and the Failure of Democracy. Westport, CT: Praeger.
Shin, Kyoung. Forthcoming. “The City and the Agency: A Study of the Rise and Fall of Low–Carbon City in Baoding, China, 1992–2011.” PhD diss., Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Wright, Joseph. 2008. “To invest or insure? How authoritarian time horizons impact foreign aid effectiveness.” Comparative Political Studies 41(7), 9711000.
Yi, Fan. 2007. “Ganbu jiaoliu fumian yingxiang jiqi kongzhi” (The adverse effects of the cadre rotations system and how to control them), Zhongguo dang zheng ganbu lun tan, 9 March, http://theory.people.com.cn/GB/49150/49152/5456856.html. Accessed 4 February 2013.
Zhong, Yang. 2003. Local Government and Politics in China – Challenges from Below. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe.

Keywords

Authoritarian Environmentalism Undermined? Local Leaders’ Time Horizons and Environmental Policy Implementation in China

  • Sarah Eaton (a1) and Genia Kostka (a2)

Metrics

Altmetric attention score

Full text views

Total number of HTML views: 0
Total number of PDF views: 0 *
Loading metrics...

Abstract views

Total abstract views: 0 *
Loading metrics...

* Views captured on Cambridge Core between <date>. This data will be updated every 24 hours.

Usage data cannot currently be displayed