Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-8kt4b Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-01T03:05:18.433Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Understanding Blame Politics in China's Decentralized System of Environmental Governance: Actors, Strategies and Context

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 August 2017

Ran Ran
Ran Ran*
Affiliation:
Renmin University ofChina. Email: ranran19807@gmail.com.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Decentralized environmental governance theory suggests that decentralization can produce better environmental performance mainly because lower-level governments are closer to the people and environmental issues and are considered more legitimate than the national government. However, China's decentralized system of environmental governance has been often regarded as a key factor in creating pollution problems rather than in solving them. To explain this puzzle, this article, using Blame Avoidance Behaviour in government theory as a theoretical framework, examines how blame avoidance behaviour shapes China's decentralized system of environmental governance from three perspectives: first, actors and the chain of blame shaped by the hierarchical power structure among environmental policymakers and implementers; second, the strategies of discursive domination and decentralization for blaming environmental problems on local officials; and lastly, the contextual factor of “hierarchical governmental trust.” Drawing on documentary discursive analysis and extensive fieldwork, this article suggests that the dysfunction of China's decentralized environmental governance structure may in fact be an outcome of a blame-shifting game between central and local governments.

摘要

分权式环境治理理论认为地方分权有利于提升环境治理绩效, 主要原因是次级国家政府比全国性政府更接近民众和环境问题, 其获得的政治合法性更高。但是, 中国环境治理的分权系统通常被视为产生而非解决环境问题的主要原因。为了解释这个悖论, 本文以推诿政治作为理论框架, 从三个层面考察了官员的推诿行为如何塑造了中国环境治理的分权系统。首先, 环境政策制定和执行者的权力等级关系影响下的行动者及其推诿链条。其次, 将环境问题向地方官员推诿的话语主导和地方分权战略。最后, 作为情景性因素的“差序政府信任”。以文献话语分析和大量的田野调查为研究方法, 本文认为中央与地方政府的互相推诿可能在一定程度造成了中国环境治理的分权系统的功能障碍。

Keywords

Blame politicsdecentralizationcentral–local relationsenvironmental politics推诿政治环境政治地方分权中央–地方关系
Type
Special Section on Central–Local Relations and Environmental Governance in China
Information
The China Quarterly , Volume 231 , September 2017 , pp. 634 - 661
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © SOAS University of London 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Andersson, Krister P., and Ostrom, Elinor. 2008. “Analyzing decentralized resource regimes from a polycentric perspective.” Policy Sciences 41(1), 71–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Andersson, Krister P., Gibson, Clark C. and Lehoucq, Fabrice. 2006. “Municipal politics and forest governance: comparative analysis of decentralization in Bolivia and Guatemala.” World Development 34(3), 576–595.Google Scholar
Bache, Ian, Bartle, Ian, Flinders, Matthew and Marsden, Greg. 2015. “Blame games and climate change: accountability, multilevel governance and carbon management.” The British Journal of Politics & International Relations 17(1), 64–88.Google Scholar
Cai, Yongshun. 2008. “Power structure and regime resilience: contentious politics in China.” British Journal of Political Science 38(3), 411–432.Google Scholar
China Academy of Social Science. 2007. 2007 Huanjing gongzhong yishi diaocha baogao (2007 General Public Environmental Awareness Report). Beijing: Zhongguo shehui kexue yuan.Google Scholar
Chinese Academy of Governance (eds.) 2013. Shengtai wenming jianshe duben (Ecological Civilization Construction Textbook). Beijing: Guojia xingzheng xueyuan chubanshe.Google Scholar
Cui, Ernan, Tao, Ran, Warner, Travis J. and Yang, Dali L.. 2015. “How do land takings affect political trust in rural China?” Political Studies 63(S1), 91–109.Google Scholar
Deng, Yanhua, and Yang, Guobin. 2013. “Pollution and protest in China: environmental mobilization in context.” The China Quarterly 214, 321–336.Google Scholar
Diamond, Larry. 2008. The Spirit of Democracy: The Struggle to Build Free Societies throughout the World. Basingstoke: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Dryzek, John. 2012. The Politics of the Earth: Environmental Discourses. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Eaton, Sarah, and Kostka, Genia. 2017. “Too big to regulate: the ‘central SOE problem’ in environmental enforcement in China.” The China Quarterly, special section “Central–local relations and environmental governance in China.”Google Scholar
Economy, Elizabeth C. 2004. The River Runs Black. The Environmental Challenge to China's Future. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Elvin, Mark. 2006. The Retreat of the Elephants: An Environmental History of China. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Gilley, Bruce. 2008. “Legitimacy and institutional change: the case of China.” Comparative Political Studies 41(3), 259–284.Google Scholar
Hajer, Maarten. A. 1995. The Politics of Environmental Discourse. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
He, Guizhen, Lu, Yonglong, Mol, Arthur P.J. and Beckers, Theo. 2012. “Changes and challenges: China's environmental management in transition.” Environmental Development 3(1), 25–38.Google Scholar
Heberer, Thomas, and Senz, Anja. 2011. “Streamlining local behaviour through communication, incentives and control: a case study of local environmental policies in China.” Journal of Current Chinese Affairs 40(3), 77–112.Google Scholar
Hinterleitner, Markus, and Sager, Fritz. 2015. “Avoiding blame – a comprehensive framework and the Australian home insulation program fiasco.” Policy Studies Journal 43(1), 139–161.Google Scholar
Holbig, Heike, and Gilley, Bruce. 2010. “In search of legitimacy in post-revolutionary China: bringing ideology and governance back in.” German Institute of Global and Area Studies Working Paper (127).Google Scholar
Hong, Dayong. 2014. “Gongzhong guanjing yishi de chengzhang yu juxian” (Public environmental awareness: improvement and limitations). Lüye 4, 5–14.Google Scholar
Hood, Christopher. 2002. “The risk game and the blame game.” Government and Opposition 37(1), 15–37.Google Scholar
Hood, Christopher. 2011. The Blame Game: Spin, Bureaucracy, and Self-Preservation in Government. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Jahiel, Abigail R. 1998. “The organization of environmental protection in China.” The China Quarterly 156, 757–787.Google Scholar
Johnson, Thomas. 2010. “Environmentalism and NIMBYism in China: promoting a rules-based approach to public participation.” Environmental Politics 19(3), 430–448.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
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), 765–785.Google Scholar
Kostka, Genia, and Mol, Arthur P.J.. 2013. “Implementation and participation in China's local environmental politics: challenges and innovations.” Journal of Environmental Policy & Planning 15(1), 3–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Li, Cheng. 2006. “Think national, blame local: central–provincial dynamics in the Hu era.” China Leadership Monitor 17(1), 1–24.Google Scholar
Li, Liangjiang. 2012. “Chaxu zhengfu xinren” (Hierarchical government trust). Ershiyi shiji (Xiang Gang) 6, 108–114.Google Scholar
Li, Lianjiang. 2013. “The magnitude and resilience of trust in the center: evidence from interviews with petitioners in Beijing and a local survey in rural China.” Modern China 39(1), 3–36.Google Scholar
Li, Lianjiang. 2016. “Reassessing trust in the central government: evidence from five national surveys.” The China Quarterly 225, 100–121.Google Scholar
Lieberthal, Kenneth. 1997. “China's Governing System and Its Impact on Environmental Policy Implementation.” China Environment Series, Washington, DC: Woodrow Wilson.Google Scholar
Litvack, Jennie Ilene, Ahmad, Junaid and Bird, Richard Miller. 1998. Rethinking Decentralization in Developing Countries. Washington, DC: World Bank Publications.Google Scholar
Lo, Carlos Wing-Hung, and Tang, Shui-Yan. 2006. “Institutional reform, economic changes, and local environmental management in China: the case of Guangdong province.” Environmental Politics 15(2), 190–210.Google Scholar
Lü, Xiaobo. 2014. “Social policy and regime legitimacy: the effects of education reform in China.” American Political Science Review 108(2), 423–437.Google Scholar
Lu, Xueyi, Li, Peilin and Chen, Guangjin (eds.). 2012. Shehui lanpishu: 2013 nian Zhongguo shehui xingshi fenxi yu yuce (Social Blue Book: 2013 China Social Condition Analysis and Prediction). Beijing: Sheke wenxian chubanshe.Google Scholar
Lynch, Daniel. 1999. After the Propaganda State: Media, Politics, and “Thought Work” in Reformed China. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
McGraw, Kathleen. 1990. “Avoiding blame: an experimental investigation of political excuses and justifications.” British Journal of Political Science 20(1), 119–131.Google Scholar
Mertha, Andrew. 2008. China's Water Warriors: Citizen Action and Policy Change. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Millimet, Daniel. 2003. “Assessing the empirical impact of environmental federalism.” Journal of Regional Science 43(4), 711–733.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moore, Scott. 2014. “Pollution without revolution.” Foreign Affairs, 11 June.Google Scholar
Mortensen, Peter B. 2013. “Public sector reform and blame avoidance effects.” Journal of Public Policy 33(2), 229–253.Google Scholar
Nathan, Andrew. 2003. “Authoritarian resilience.” Journal of Democracy 14(1), 6–17.Google Scholar
Oates, Wallace E. 2001. “A reconsideration of environmental federalism.” Washington, DC: Resources for the Future.Google Scholar
O'Brien, Kevin, and Li, Lianjiang. 1999. “Selective policy implementation in rural China.” Comparative Politics 31(2), 167–186.Google Scholar
O'Brien, Kevin, and Li, Lianjiang. 2006. Rightful Resistance in Rural China. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Ong, Lynette. 2015. “Breaking Beijing? The government's harsh crackdown could crack the regime.” Foreign Affairs, 9 June.Google Scholar
Qi, Ye. 2008. Zhongguo huanjing jianguan tizhi yanjiu (China's Environmental Supervision System Study). Shanghai: Shanghai sanlian chubanshe.Google Scholar
Rajão, Raoni, and Georgiadou, Yola. 2014. “Blame games in the Amazon: environmental crises and the emergence of a transparency regime in Brazil.” Global Environmental Politics 14(4), 97–115.Google Scholar
Ran, Ran. 2013. “Perverse incentive structure and policy implementation gap in China's local environmental politics.” Journal of Environmental Policy & Planning 15(1), 17–39.Google Scholar
Ran, Ran. 2015. Zhongguo difang huanjing zhengzhi: zhengce yu zhixing zhijian de juli (China's Local Environmental Politics: the Gap between Policies and Implementation). Beijing: Zhongyang bianyi chubanshe.Google Scholar
Ribot, Jesse C. 2002. Democratic Decentralization of Natural Resources. Washington DC: World Resources Institute.Google Scholar
Schubert, Gunter. 2008. “One-party rule and the question of legitimacy in contemporary China: preliminary thoughts on setting up a new research agenda.” Journal of Contemporary China 17(54), 191–204.Google Scholar
Shi, Tianjian. 2008. “China: democratic value supporting authoritarian system.” In Chu, Yun-han, Diamond, Larry, Nathan, Andrew J. and Shin, Doh Chull (eds.), How East Asians View Democracy. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Shi, Tianjian, and Lu, Jie. 2010. “The shadow of Confucianism.” Journal of Democracy 21(4), 123–130.Google Scholar
Sigman, Hilary. 2014. “Decentralization and environmental quality: an international analysis of water pollution levels and variation.” Land Economics 90(1), 114–130.Google Scholar
Sinkule, Barbara J., and Ortolano, Leonard. 1995. Implementing Environmental Policy in China. London: Praeger Publishers.Google Scholar
Stern, Rachel E. 2013. Environmental Litigation in China: A Study in Political Ambivalence. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Steinberg, Paul F., and VanDeveer, Stacy D.. 2012. “Bridging archipelagos: comparative politics and environmental politics.” In Steinberg, Paul F. and VanDeveer, Stacy D. (eds.), Comparative Environmental Politics: Theory, Practice, and Prospects. Cambridge: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Steinhardt, H. Christoph. 2012. “How is high trust in China possible? Comparing the origins of generalized trust in three Chinese societies.” Political Studies 60(2), 434–454.Google Scholar
Steinhardt, H. Christoph, and Wu, Fengshi. 2016. “In the name of the public: environmental protest and the changing landscape of popular contention in China.” China Journal 75, 61–82.Google Scholar
Stockmann, Daniela, and Gallagher, Mary E.. 2011. “Remote control: how the media sustain authoritarian rule in China.” Comparative Political Studies 44(4), 436–467.Google Scholar
Tang, Min, and Huhe, Narisong. 2016. “The variant effect of decentralization on trust in national and local governments in Asia.” Political Studies 64(1), 216–234.Google Scholar
Tang, Wenfang. 2005. Public Opinion and Political Change in China. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Tilt, Bryan. 2007. “The political ecology of pollution enforcement in China: a case from Sichuan's rural industrial sector.” The China Quarterly 192, 915–932.Google Scholar
Tilly, Charles. 2009. Credit and Blame. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Van Rooij, Benjamin. 2006. “The compensation trap: the limits of community-based pollution regulation in China.” Pace Environmental Law Review 29(3), 701–745.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van Rooij, Benjamin, and Lo, Carlos H.W.. 2010. “A fragile convergence, understanding variation in the enforcement of China's industrial pollution law.” Law & Policy 32(1), 14–37.Google Scholar
Van Rooij, Benjamin, Zhu, Qiaoqiao, Li, Na and Wang, Qiliang. 2017. “Centralizing trends and pollution law enforcement in China.” The China Quarterly, special section “Central–local relations and environmental governance in China.”Google Scholar
Wang, Alex. 2013. “The search for sustainable legitimacy: environmental law and bureaucracy in China.” Harvard Environmental Law Review 37(365), 365–440.Google Scholar
Wang, Zhengxu. 2005. “Political trust in China: forms and causes.” In White, Lynn (eds.), Legitimacy: Ambiguities of Political Success or Failure in East and Southeast Asia. Singapore: World Scientific Publishing.Google Scholar
Weaver, R. Kent. 1986. “The politics of blame avoidance.” Journal of Public Policy 6(4), 371–398.Google Scholar
Webster, Barbara Jancar. 1998. “Environmental movement and social change in the transition countries.” Environmental Politics 7(1), 69–90.Google Scholar
Weibust, Inger. 2013. Green Leviathan: The Case for a Federal Role in Environmental Policy. Aldershot: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Wong, Christine, and Karplus, Valerie. 2017. “China's war on air pollution: can existing governance structures support new ambitions?” The China Quarterly, special section “Central–local relations and environmental governance in China.”Google Scholar
Yang, Dongpin (ed.). 2008. Zhongguo huanjing de weiji yu zhuanji 2008 (China Environment's Crisis and Opportunities 2008). Beijing: Sheke wenxian chubanshe.Google Scholar
Yang, Guobin and Calhoun, Craig. 2007. “Media, civil society and the rise of a green public sphere in China.” China Information 21(2), 211–236.Google Scholar
Yu, Jianrong. 2005. “Xinfang zhidu diaocha ji gaige silu” (Current system of letters of complaints and its reform). In Peilin, Li, Xueyi, Lu and Xin, Ru (eds.), 2005 nian: Zhongguo shehui xingshi fenxi yu yuce (2005: Chinese Society Situation Analysis and Predictions). Beijing: Shehui kexue wenxian chubanshe, 212–19.Google Scholar
Zhao, Yuezhi, and Sun, Wusan. 2007. “Public opinion supervision: possibilities and limits of the media in constraining local officials.” In Perry, Elizabeth and Goldman, Merle (eds.), Grassroots Political Reform in Contemporary China. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Zhou, Shengxian. 2014. “Gaige shengtai huanjing baohu guanli tizhi” (Reform ecological environmental protection system),” People's Daily, 7 February.Google Scholar
Zhou, Xueguang, Lian, Hong, Ortolano, Leonard and Ye, Yinyu. 2013. “A behavioral model of ‘muddling through’ in the Chinese bureaucracy.” The China Journal (70), 120–147.Google Scholar
Zhu, Jiangnan, Lu, Jie and Shi, Tianjian. 2013. “When grapevine news meets mass media: different information sources and popular perceptions of government corruption in Mainland China.” Comparative Political Studies 46(8), 920–946.Google Scholar