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| 1 |
ID:
104091
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2011.
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| Summary/Abstract |
During the past few years, the Chinese government has formulated ambitious plans for building many large hydropower stations, but so far it has withheld final approval for the construction of the majority. The environmental problems and rising cost of coal-fired stations, China's Copenhagen commitment, the creation of a high-voltage national power grid, and the availability of cheap capital should have all worked to the advantage of hydropower. Moreover, present projects require much less resettlement than those in previous decades. However, since 2006 political concern for the social problems of forced migration and distrust of the business alliance between power companies and provincial governments seem to be obstacles. Stricter regulations for environmental impact assessment, more comprehensive planning of water and reservoir use, and a lack of staff have lengthened approval processes. Central and provincial governments do not agree on developmental priorities and electricity prices. Uncertainty about obligations imposed on investing power companies is a factor too. Thus, hydropower policy suffers from conflicting goals and uneven commitment of various bureaucratic interests. Even if a clear policy commitment could improve policy implementation, China's target of 330 GW of regular hydropower capacity in 2020, and thereby its renewable energy target, are unlikely to be met.
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| 2 |
ID:
079478
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2007.
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| Summary/Abstract |
We argue a case for a `revisioning' of the education policy-implementation nexus in the South African higher education sector. It is proposed that the well-meaning idealism expressed in policy pronouncements is necessarily subject to a host of mediations, national and international, which have a mutative effect on the original intent. This understanding of policy, as `policy pragmatism', is used to understand the discourse in current South African higher education, which although very `efficiency' driven, retains considerable access elements. The article describes how the initial policy intention of `unfettered' access transmutes to a pragmatic, cautious and guided right of entry. Thus, while initial policy propositions are contained in policy, they are not as overtly discernible as would be anticipated
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| 3 |
ID:
145129
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| Summary/Abstract |
The Rural Minimum Living Standard is an important component of social security in rural areas of China, as it provides social assistance to poor rural households. The country’s size and large development heterogeneities, however, make the policy’s implementation a challenging task. Using quantitative and qualitative data from rural households and administrators in five provinces, we identify the pitfalls of multi-level implementation along with the difficulty of measuring income in rural, underdeveloped areas as key sources of an implementation gap that has led to a considerable degree of misallocation of monetary transfers. Changes in the budgeting process and the distribution method might improve the anti-poverty effect of social assistance without having to carry out additional monitoring.
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| 4 |
ID:
145742
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| Summary/Abstract |
Since the mid-2000s, the Chinese government has promoted village modernization under the banner of “building a new socialist countryside.” To explain the origins and outcomes of this policy, this article examines the case of Ganzhou city in Jiangxi province. Ganzhou became a national model for rural development known for involving organizations called peasant councils in policy implementation. The study found that despite an initial emphasis on rural participation and moderate change, the new socialist countryside evolved into a top-down campaign to demolish and reconstruct villages. Three factors shaped this process: the strength of bureaucratic mobilization, the weakness of rural organizations, and shifting national policy priorities. After obtaining model status, Ganzhou's rural policy became more ambitious and politicized, leaving little space for participation. This insight suggests there are both benefits and costs to China's policy process. Despite the advantages of policy innovation, scaling up local experiments may actually undermine their success.
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| 5 |
ID:
131400
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| Publication |
2014.
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| Summary/Abstract |
The paper examines the outcomes of and responses to the policy system (the "obligatory indicator system") used by the Chinese central government to induce provincial governments to meet energy-saving targets during the 11th Five Year Plan. The institutional mechanisms underlying the policy system that promotes implementation of energy saving are identified An analytical framework is developed to identify the strategic responses of provincial governments and the factors shaping their responses. Comprehensive sets of provincial data on economic and energy performance are collected and analyzed. The findings indicate that the central government's credible commitment to implement the policy system drove the initially disparate attitudes of provinces to a converged outcome. However, the outcome is significantly constrained by provinces' initial energy intensity. In particular, provincial governments have applied strategies of ceremonial implementation, efficiency-oriented efforts and effectiveness-focused efforts to attain specific targets. This paper discusses the implications in comparison with the modified obligatory indicator system in the 12th Five Year Plan and offers policy suggestions accordingly.
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| 6 |
ID:
190409
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| Summary/Abstract |
As part of a broader direction of welfare and governance reforms, China has launched a policy to contract welfare services out to social organizations. Scholars have explored the implementation of the policy in a few socioeconomically advanced cities such as Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Shanghai. In this article, we examine how local governments lacking nongovernmental services suppliers or resources for contracting respond to the policy. We developed a framework of multiple logics to analyse services contracting in a county-level city in eastern China. We found that local officials follow three logics in implementing the policy: to meet the central state's targets, to balance policy outcomes and risks, and to stimulate a more participatory society. This generates a mix of policy behaviour, including entrepreneurialism, welfarism, innovation, risk-sharing and collaboration. We thus argue the interplay of the logics determines the local policy process of services contracting in China.
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| 7 |
ID:
149748
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| Summary/Abstract |
In 2010, according to the sixth Chinese census, the sex ratio at birth (SRB) was 118 males for every 100 females. The global SRB average is about 105. Thus, the gap between 118 and 105 is made up of “missing girls.” Scholars present three main explanations for the skewed SRB statistic: sex-selective abortion, infanticide and delayed or late registration. Most studies take a demographic and cultural approach to explain the high SRB. However, we believe the story of the “missing girls” is also an administrative one and adopt the street-level bureaucrat theory of policy implementation to explain the pervasiveness of late registration in rural China. We use descriptive statistics derived from the 1990, 2000 and 2010 census data to identify the “missing girls.” We believe the combination of late registration and unreported births may point to a larger proportion of “missing girls” than previously reported from the SRB statistic.
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| 8 |
ID:
104925
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| Publication |
2011.
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| Summary/Abstract |
This report examines the impact of renewable portfolio standards (RPS) and cap-and-trade policy options on the U.S. electricity sector. The analysis uses the National Renewable Energy Laboratory's Regional Energy Deployment System (ReEDS) model that simulates the least-cost expansion of electricity generation capacity and transmission in the U.S. to examine the impact of a variety of emissions caps-and RPS scenarios both individually and combined. The generation mix, carbon emissions, and electricity price are examined for various policy combinations simulated in the modeling.
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| 9 |
ID:
133027
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2014.
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| Summary/Abstract |
In 1998, the South African government developed an energy policy that focused on a pro-poor agenda. Its objectives included addressing the health impacts of solid fuel use in households. Fourteen years later, and with household electrification at over 80%, millions still use solid fuels and yet ambitious policy objectives to address this situation are not being met. Using three theoretical frameworks; institutional capacity, policy inheritance and the symbolic use of policy, this paper analyses the reasons why household energy policy objectives related to solid fuels and health, as stated in the 1998 South African energy policy, have not been implemented. The results of the analysis show that the symbolic use of policy, including meanings of objects used for meeting policy objectives is the most critical explanation. The paper illustrates that political and historical contexts are critical to understanding policy outcomes in developing and transition countries which often experience tensions between implementing what may seem as objective policies, and that matches their political and historical experiences and aspirations. We recommend that policy analysts in the energy sector complement currently common methods to include political contexts of policy development and implementation in order to better understand why policy makers chose to implement certain policies over others.
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| 10 |
ID:
187032
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The Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda and women's participation in peace processes are strongly supported by states. Yet financing to support the implementation of WPS has lagged behind overt international commitments to the agenda. WPS scholars and practitioners have highlighted the funding shortfalls for enabling WPS implementation and continued under-investment in gender-inclusive peace. In this article, we ask how much are donor states financially backing the implementation of gender-inclusive peace agreements which they promote? We use a high ambiguity-conflict model of policy implementation to explore the mechanisms of bilateral and multilateral financing for gender-inclusive peace. We trace to what extent international investments are supporting specific gender provisions in two progressive gender-inclusive peace processes, the 2016 Colombian Peace Agreement and 2015 Comprehensive Peace Agreement in the Philippines. In both case studies, we reveal a drastic gap between the international donor rhetoric and the funding. Patterns of financial investment do not follow nor support the life cycle of inclusive peace processes. We suggest key strategies for further research to address this policy and recommend that all gender provisions of peace agreements be monitored in-country and all gender-responsive investments be tracked and evaluated.
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| 11 |
ID:
121258
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| Publication |
2013.
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| Summary/Abstract |
Can citizens in an authoritarian country like China influence
policy implementation? Two types of scholarship indicate ways that they
can: The first proposes that policy implementation is carried out through
a fragmented authoritarian system that requires consultation and cooperation among various government units, and this system is amenable to
pressure from outside groups. The second examines institutional channels designed to handle grievances and bridge communication between
citizens and the authorities. In this paper, I emphasize a link between
these two bodies of scholarship, showing how protest channels are connected to the fragmented authoritarian system and how the imperative to
maintain social stability leads higher-level authorities to resolve departmental conflicts in favour of protesters. I do this by examining a struggle
against the privatization of a hospital in North China, a case that illustrates how protesters successfully employed both the petition system and
the opportunities offered by the fragmented authoritarian system to
develop powerful alliances, to peacefully pressure top local authorities to
intervene and to overcome opposition in the local government, leading
to finalizing the municipalization of the hospital.
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| 12 |
ID:
151583
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| Summary/Abstract |
Relying on fieldwork conducted in two provinces, this article provides a systemic study of China's Government Work Reports (GWRs), examining their function, format, how they are formulated and implemented, their content and their research values. Whilst the existing literature mostly focuses on central government reports, this research integrates GWRs from all administrative levels. I argue that over time, the GWRs have developed into a highly institutionalized nationwide system with two important aspects – local elites’ autonomy in setting work agendas, and their compliance with central government policy priorities. Additionally, my study shows that by using quantifiable targets and celebrating achievements framed in concrete statistics, the GWRs help to sustain the legitimacy of the party-state. Finally, my study finds GWRs to be a versatile scholarly resource that can be used for various research interests and methods.
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| 13 |
ID:
072709
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| Publication |
2005.
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| Summary/Abstract |
Due to its enormous population, spectacular economic growth, and severe environmental degradation, China's environmental impact on the country and the world is difficult to assess. Knowledge of the environmental awareness and the growth of the environmental movement in China are critical to the understanding of the country's environmental future. Firstly, this paper examines the environmental awareness of Chinese people based upon two major surveys conducted in 1998. The findings contributed to our understanding of the environmental awareness of people in the following aspects: environmental literacy, prioritization of environmental problems, environmental governance, environmental ethics, and participation in environmental protection campaigns. Secondly, the paper scrutinizes the emergence of green NGOs in China in the 1990s. Chinese green NGOs possessed particular "Chinese characteristics" which distinguished them from those in the West. To date, the Chinese government is willing to allow more political space for citizen participation in environmental protection. Increasingly, green NGOs gained support not only from international communities but also from Chinese citizens who value a clean environment. Finally, the paper argues that the emergence of green NGOs offers a breakthrough in the conventional "government-reliance" attitude towards environmental protection. If these eco-activists can target non-sensitive issues, they may make profound contributions in enhancing environmental policy implementation.
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| 14 |
ID:
179164
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| Summary/Abstract |
This article argues that policy implementation in China has moved toward a system under which the center formulates a blueprint or “top-level design” from which local officials devise detailed regulations through a process of “crossing the river by feeling for stones.” This applies to the development of China’s new social credit system. To minimize political risk, when implementing it local officials have selected easier goals from the “top-level design” blueprint. In City Z, for example, we find that promoting integrity among businesses is less risky than promoting integrity among civil servants or the general public, so less progress has been made in the latter two areas when putting in place integrity credit-point systems. The risks involved in promoting social credit among the general populace are the greatest, so the city’s efforts in this have been limited. From our empirical study of China’s social credit system in City Z, we draw some conclusions about policy implementation under Xi Jinping.
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| 15 |
ID:
127896
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| Publication |
2014.
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| Summary/Abstract |
Local governments have replaced the national ministries that are in charge of various industries to become the primary implementer of energy-saving policies in China since 2000. This paper employs a case study-based approach to demonstrate the significance of local governments' policy measures in assisting industrial enterprises with energy-saving activities in China. Based on the longitudinal case of the Jasmine Thermal Electric Power Company, this paper hypothesizes that sub-national governments have played a major role in implementing energy-saving policies in China since the 11th Five-year-plan period. A wide range of provincial and municipal agencies collaborated in implementing five types of policy measures - informational policy, skill building, improved enforcement of central directives, price adjustment, and funding - that reduced barriers to energy saving and motivated active pursuit of energy-saving activities at industrial enterprises. The case study demonstrates how an enterprise and local governments work together to achieve the enterprise's energy-saving target. The authors will investigate the hypothesis of this paper in the context of multiple case studies that they plan to undertake in the future.
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| 16 |
ID:
164701
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Most countries put significant amounts of time and effort in writing and issuing high-level policy documents. These are supposed to guide subsequent national defence efforts. But do they? And how do countries even try to ensure that they do? This paper reports on a benchmarking effort of how a few “best of breed” small- to medium-sized defence organisations (Australia, Canada, and New Zealand) deal with these issues. We find that most countries fail to link goals to resources and pay limited attention to specific and rigorous ex-ante or post-hoc evaluation, even when compared to their own national government-wide provisions. We do, however, observe a (modest) trend towards putting more specific goals and metrics in these documents that can be – and in a few rare cases were – tracked. The paper identifies 42 concrete policy “nuggets” – both “do’s and don’ts” – that should be of interest to most defence policy planning/analysis communities. It ends with two recommendations that are in line with recent broader (non-defence) scholarship on the policy formulation-policy implementation gap: to put more rigorous emphasis on implementation (especially on achieving desired policy effects), but to do so increasingly in more experiential (“design”) ways, rather than in industrial-age bureaucratic ones (“PPBS”-systems).
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| 17 |
ID:
186007
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| Summary/Abstract |
China has undertaken a major shift in its position on mercury as an environmental problem over the last decade and a half. It ratified the Minamata Convention (MC) in 2016 and by doing so has committed to implement the treaty objectives. This article asks: How do we explain China's will and ability to implement its MC obligations? There is little systematic knowledge about the main factors underlying implementation of international mercury objectives in China, hence this article contributes new research on this important topic. We examine the implementation process, focusing on the coal sector and differentiate between indirect effects from other policies and direct efforts to implement obligations. We find that China has moved toward stricter regulation of mercury emissions and direct implementation of the Minamata Convention in the coal sector. However, our study shows that local implementation capacity needs improvement.
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| 18 |
ID:
145131
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| Summary/Abstract |
An important part of Beijing’s strategy to reduce the welfare gap between urban and rural parts of China has been the promotion of urbanisation. Replacing peasant agriculture with commercial operations of scale is an integral part of this endeavour. This article analyses the implementation of policies meant to transform the structure of Chinese agriculture. It argues that the central government is using a set of very flexible policies, project-based implementation and adaption to local conditions to guide and support an existing dynamic of structural transformation in agriculture. Local governments, in turn, appreciate the flexibility, the political predictability, the potential revenue improvements and the cognitive framework inherent in these programmes. The article is primarily based on interviews with leading cadres at the township and county levels in the provinces of Shandong, Sichuan and Guizhou between 2008 and 2010.
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| 19 |
ID:
119187
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2012.
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| Summary/Abstract |
This paper analyses Chinese sub-national governments' implementation strategies to meet national energy efficiency targets in the 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-2010). Previous research has focused on the ways governance practices and decision-making structures shape implementation outcomes, yet very little attention has been given to what strategies local leaders actually employ to bridge national priorities with local interests. To illustrate how local leaders work politically, this paper highlights specific implementation methods officials use to strengthen formal incentives and create effective informal incentives to comply with energy efficiency mandates. The analysis is drawn from 53 interviews conducted in June and July of 2010 in Shanxi, a major coal-producing and energy-intensive province. Findings suggest that local government leaders conform to national directives by "bundling" the energy efficiency policy with policies of more pressing local importance or by "bundling" their energy efficiency objectives with the interests of groups with significant political influence. Ultimately, sub-national government officials frame policies in ways that give them legitimacy at the local level.
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| 20 |
ID:
149222
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As the government announces a programme to teach Muslim women to speak English, this article examines how such a policy can be implemented successfully, arguing that lessons can be drawn from both academic research, especially that carried out with Muslim women themselves, and previous successful policy application. It focuses on two projects carried out in the recent past for the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) and Jobcentre Plus, and outlines the key factors that led to their success. The LSC project involved one of the largest in-depth surveys of Muslim women's attitudes towards work, and their views on life in Britain, that has ever been undertaken. The Jobcentre Plus project was a highly successful and innovative employment training initiative for ethnic minority women piloted in Sheffield, the very kind of ‘targeted’ approach that Mr Cameron has claimed his government's new language initiative will be.
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