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ID:
159835
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Summary/Abstract |
The heavy smog suffocating China's cities is increasingly being perceived as a threat by both the population and the authorities. Consequently, political action aiming at regulating ambient air pollution has become increasingly comprehensive and rigid in recent years. Even measures limiting consumption and production seem to become acceptable as China is facing an airpocalypse. Does this suggest a genesis of real “authoritarian environmentalism” (AE) in China? Taking this as a heuristic point of departure, we present findings from research on the implementation of air pollution control measures in Hangzhou city. We offer a critical examination of the concept of AE and, in particular, of local policy implementation strategies vis-à-vis the general public. Two measures in Hangzhou's air policy portfolio are analysed that reveal considerable variation: restrictions on the use of private cars and the (re)location of industrial facilities. Describing the conditions that have helped to produce different implementation strategies, we argue for different emphases in a potential Chinese model of AE. In a context where outcomes are sought at any cost, we observe more complexity and nuances than are usually captured by the AE concept.
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2 |
ID:
111301
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3 |
ID:
184752
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Summary/Abstract |
Scholarship on local governance in China in general and on the Chinese policy process in particular has expanded remarkably over the last four decades. Where earlier studies were mostly interested in grasping the dynamics of central-local relations, more specific features like performance evaluation systems or policy implementation processes have come under scholarly scrutiny over the course of time. New theoretical concepts have been introduced to explain phenomena pertaining to local governance, and this research has become ever more specialized. In this state-of-the art review, we trace the trajectories of research on the Chinese policy process in the reform era in two distinct periods before and after the inauguration of current CCP General Secretary Xi Jinping. By drawing on prominent theoretical and conceptual approaches to understanding and assessing the Chinese policy process in these two periods, we highlight the changes and continuities in local policymaking under Xi’s “top-level design.” Although most recent studies indicate increasing top-down centralization in the local Chinese state, it seems that the basic institutional prerequisites of the policy process have hardly been altered. Therefore, most of the older conceptual characterizations of local policymaking still very much hold water. Still, we do conclude by pointing to some so far understudied aspects of local policymaking in China.
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4 |
ID:
124889
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Publication |
2013.
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Summary/Abstract |
Models, pilots and experiments are considered distinctive features of the Chinese policy process. However, empirical studies on local modelling practices are rare. This article analyses the ways in which three rural counties in three different provinces engage in strategies of modelling and piloting to implement the central government's "Building a New Socialist Countryside" (shehuizhuyi xinnongcun jianshe) programme. It explains how county and township governments apply these strategies and to what effect. It also highlights the scope and limitations of local models and pilots as useful mechanisms for spurring national development. The authors plead for a fresh look at local modelling practices, arguing that these can tell us much about the realities of governance in rural China today.
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