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RESEARCH ARTICLE: Rent-Seeking Obstacles to Changing Environmental Practices and Sustainable Public Procurement in China

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 September 2013

Ed Schwerin  and
Eric Prier
Ed Schwerin*
Affiliation:
Professor, Department of Political Science, Florida Atlantic University, Davie, Florida
Eric Prier
Affiliation:
Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, Florida Atlantic University, Davie, Florida
*
Ed Schwerin, Department of Political Science, 3200 College Avenue, Davie, FL 33314; (phone) 954-236-1132; (fax) 954-236-1150; (e-mail) Schwerin@fau.edu
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Abstract

Over the last 30 years China has enjoyed economic growth averaging about 10% of gross domestic product (GDP) per year. But this economic growth has come at a high environmental cost. In China approximately 750,000 premature deaths a year are attributed to high levels of environmental pollution. With the recent 12th Five Year Plan (FYP) China's leadership announced the launching of a green revolution that would balance the need for robust economic growth with concern for the environment and combating climate change. This paper utilizes a rent-seeking framework to explore some of the obstacles inhibiting more environmentally sustainable policies in China. We describe the situation as a struggle over the proper aligning of the individual actor's behavior within an opportunistic governance structure, and we argue that rent seeking and corruption creates substantial hurdles to promoting green environmental practices and programs.

Environmental Practice 15:240–252 (2013)

Type
Features
Information
Environmental Practice , Volume 15 , Issue 3 , September 2013 , pp. 240 - 252
Copyright
Copyright © National Association of Environmental Professionals 2013 

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