Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-4rdpn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-11T01:46:16.900Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Neither Centre nor Local: Community-Driven Experimentalist Governance in China

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 August 2017

Kyoung Shin
Kyoung Shin*
Affiliation:
National Tsing Hua University. Email: shin@mx.nthu.edu.tw.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Based on findings from three years of site-intensive fieldwork at the local level, this article presents evidence to suggest that binary governance frameworks like centre–local relations are insufficient to understand certain local regulatory outcomes in contemporary China. I seek to specify a distinct type of local governance that has been emerging in recent years, which blurs existing binary concepts. It can be distinguished along two main dimensions: ostensible structure and modalities of governance. Two cases are analysed to illustrate the ways in which it impacts local regulatory outcomes. The analyses point to the need for expanding our portfolio of approaches to understanding local governance in contemporary China.

摘要

根据在中国地方层面进行的深度民族志田野调查, 本文表明二元的治理框架, 譬如中央-地方关系, 不足以解释在当代中国地方出现的某些规制现象及结果。笔者试图勾勒近年来凸显的一种不同的地方治理类型, 这种类型使得现有的二元治理概念愈来愈模糊。其独特性主要表现在两个层面: 治理的表面结构和实行内容。本文分析了两个具体的案例以展示这种治理类型如何影响地方能源与环境治理的结果。本项研究认为, 为了更清楚地了解当代中国的地方治理, 我们需要扩充研究进路以及理论框架。

Keywords

local governancecommunity-driven experimentalist governanceenvironmentenergycentre–local relations地方治理圈子主导的试验性治理环境能源中央-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. 607 - 633
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

Arcuri, Alessandra, and Dari-Mattiacci, Giuseppe. 2010. “Centralization versus decentralization as a risk-return trade-off.” Journal of Law and Economics 53(2), 359–378.Google Scholar
Ayres, Ian, and Braithwaite, John. 1992. Responsive Regulation: Transcending the Deregulation Debate. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Baoding Economic Statistical Yearbook 1995. 1996. Baoding, Hebei: Baoding Bureau of Statistics.Google Scholar
Baoding Yearbook 1995–1997. 1998. Beijing: China Literature and History Press.Google Scholar
Birney, Mayling. 2013. “Decentralization and veiled corruption under China's ‘Rule of Mandates’.” World Development 5, 55–67.Google Scholar
Brown, John S., and Duguid, Paul. 1991. “Organizational learning and communities-of-practice: toward a unified view of working, learning, and innovation.” Organization Science 2(1), 40–57.Google Scholar
China Environment News. 2011. “‘Xieyi baohu’ nengfou zhengjiu Sanjiangyuan? (Can the ‘agreement-based environmental protection’ save Sanjiangyuan?).” Zhongguo huanjingwang, 9 May: http://www.cenews.com.cn/xwzx/dh/201105/t20110508_702072.html. Accessed 1 April 2014.Google Scholar
China State Council. 1991. Guowuyuan guanyu pizhun guojia gaoxinjishu chanye kaifaqu he youguan zhengce guiding de tongzhi (Notification Regarding Ratification of National-Level High- and New-Technology Industrial Development Zones and Related Policy Regulations), 6 March.Google Scholar
Dai, Liping. 2015. “A new perspective on water governance in China: captain of the river.” Water International 40(1), 87–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eaton, Sarah, and Kostka, Genia. 2017. “Central protectionism in China: the ‘central SOE problem’ in environmental governance.” The China Quarterly, special section “Central–local relations and environmental governance in China.”Google Scholar
Economy, Elizabeth C. 2007. “The great leap backward?: the costs of China's environmental crisis.” Foreign Affairs 86(5), 38–59.Google Scholar
Economy, Elizabeth C. 2010 [2004]. The River Runs Black: The Environmental Challenge to China's Future. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Edin, Maria. 2003. “State capacity and local agent control in China: CCP cadre management from a township perspective.” The China Quarterly 173, 35–52.Google Scholar
Evans, Peter B. 2004. “Development as institutional change: the pitfalls of monocropping and the potentials of deliberation.” Studies in Comparative International Development 38(4), 30–52.Google Scholar
Faure, M. Andrew. 1994. “Some methodological problems in comparative politics.” Journal of Theoretical Politics 6(3), 307–322.Google Scholar
Florini, Ann, Lai, Hairong and Tan, Yeling. 2012. China Experiments: From Local Innovations to National Reform. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press.Google Scholar
Gunningham, Neil, and Sinclair, Darren. 1999. “Regulatory pluralism: designing policy mixes for environmental protection.” Law & Policy 21(1), 49–76.Google Scholar
Haas, Peter M. 1992. “Introduction: epistemic communities and international policy coordination.” International Organization 46(1), 1–35.CrossRefGoogle 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.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heberer, Thomas, and Trappel, René. 2013. “Evaluation processes, local cadres’ behaviour and local development processes.” Journal of Contemporary China 22(84), 1048–66.Google Scholar
Heilmann, Sebastian. 2008. “Policy experimentation in China's economic rise.” Studies in Comparative International Development 43(1), 1–26.Google Scholar
Huang, Yasheng. 1996. Inflation and Investment Controls in China: The Political Economy of Central–Local Relations during the Reform Era. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hutchcroft, Paul D. 2001. “Centralization and decentralization in administration and politics: assessing territorial dimensions of authority and power.” Governance 14(1), 23–53.Google Scholar
King, Gary, Keohane, Robert and Verba, Sidney. 1994. Designing Social Inquiry: Scientific Inference in Qualitative Research. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google 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
Lave, Jean, and Wenger, Etienne. 1991. Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Participation. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Li, Hongbin, and Zhou, Li-An. 2005. “Political turnover and economic performance: the incentive role of personnel control in China.” Journal of Public Economics 89(9–10), 1743–62.Google Scholar
Liaowang Oriental Weekly . 2013. “Sanjiangyuan shengtai baohu: touru 75yi zhihou (Sanjiangyuan ecological protection: after investing 7.5 billion yuan).” Liaowang dongfang zhoukan, Issue 34: http://lwdf.qikan.com/ArticleView.aspx?titleid=lwdf20133417. Accessed 1 April 2014.Google Scholar
List, John A., and Gerking, Shelby. 2000. “Regulatory federalism and environmental protection in the United States.” Journal of Regional Science 40(3), 453–471.Google Scholar
Liu, Yi, Mol, Arthur P.J. and Chen, Jining. 2005. “The environmental industry in transitional China: barriers and opportunities between state and market.” International Journal of Environment and Sustainable Development 4(3), 269–289.CrossRefGoogle 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
Lo, Kevin. 2014. “China's low-carbon city initiatives: the implementation gap and the limits of the target responsibility system.” Habitat International 42, 236–244.Google Scholar
Mertha, Andrew. 2009. “‘Fragmented Authoritarianism 2.0’: political pluralization in the Chinese policy process.” The China Quarterly 200, 995–1012.Google Scholar
Montinola, Gabriella, Qian, Yingyi and Weingast, Barry. 1995. “Federalism, Chinese style: the political basis for economic success in China.” World Politics 48(1), 50–81.Google Scholar
Nahm, Jonas. 2017. “Exploiting the implementation gap: policy divergence and industrial upgrading in China's wind and solar sectors.” The China Quarterly, special section “Central–local relations and environmental governance in China.”CrossRefGoogle Scholar
National Commission of Science and Technology (NCoST). 1991. Guanyu shenhua gaoxinjishu chanye kaifaqu gaige tuijin gaoxinjishu chanye fazhan de jueding (Decisions regarding deepening the reform of national-level high- and new-technology industrial development zones to drive the development of high- and new-technology industries), NCoST, 5 September.Google Scholar
Oates, Wallace E. 2001. A Reconsideration of Environmental Federalism. Washington, DC: Resources for the Future.Google Scholar
O'Brien, Kevin J., and Li, Lianjiang. 1999. “Selective policy implementation in rural China.” Comparative Politics 31(2), 167–186.Google Scholar
Oi, Jean. C. 1992. “Fiscal reform and the economic foundations of local state corporatism in China.” World Politics 45(1), 99–126.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oi, Jean C. 2005. “Patterns of corporate restructuring in China: political constraints on privatization.” The China Journal 53, 115–136.Google Scholar
Price, Lynn, Levine, Mark D., Zhou, Nan, Fridley, David, Aden, Nathaniel, Lu, Hongyou, McNeil, Michael et al. 2011. “Assessment of China's energy-saving and emission-reduction accomplishments and opportunities during the 11th Five Year Plan.” Energy Policy 39(4), 2165–78.CrossRefGoogle 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
Sabel, Charles F., and Zeitlin, Jonathan. 2008. “Learning from difference: the new architecture of experimentalist governance in the European Union.” European Law Journal 14(3), 271–327.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sabel, Charles F., and Zeitlin, Jonathan. 2010. “Learning from difference: the new architecture of experimentalist governance in the European Union.” In Sabel, C.F. and Zeitlin, J. (eds.), Experimentalist Governance in the European Union: Towards a New Architecture. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Sabel, Charles F., and Zeitlin, Jonathan. 2012. “Experimentalism in the EU: common ground and persistent differences: a rejoinder.” Regulation & Governance 6, 410–426.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shin, Kyoung. 2014. “An Emerging Architecture of Local Experimentalist Governance in China: A Study of Local Innovations in Baoding, 1992–2012.” PhD diss., Massachusetts Institute of Technology.Google Scholar
Shin, Kyoung. 2016. “Possibilities and pitfalls of low-carbon city development in China: governing local policy innovation.” Paper presented at The 2016 Association for Asian Studies (AAS) Annual Conference, Seattle, WA, 31 March–3 April 2016.Google Scholar
Simpson, Barbara. 2009. “Pragmatism, mead and the practice turn.” Organization Studies 30(12), 1329–47.Google Scholar
Teets, Jessica C., and Hurst, William (eds.). 2014. Local Governance Innovation in China: Experimentation, Diffusion, and Defiance. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Tsui, Kai-yuen and Wang, Youqiang 2004. “Between separate stoves and a single menu: fiscal decentralization in China.” The China Quarterly 177, 71–90.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
Wang, Alex. 2013. “The search for sustainable legitimacy: environmental law and bureaucracy in China.” Harvard Environmental Law Review 37, 365–440.Google Scholar
Whiting, Susan H. 2004. “The cadre evaluation system at the grass roots: the paradox of Party rule.” In Naughton, Barry and Yang, Dali (eds.), Holding China Together: Diversity and National Integration in the Post-Deng Era. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Wilson, John D. 1996. “Capital mobility and environmental standards: is there a theoretical basis for a race to the bottom?” In Baghwati, Jagdish and Hudec, Robert (eds.), Fair Trade and Harmonization: Prerequisites for Free Trade? Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 393–420.Google Scholar
Wong, Christine. 1991. “Central–local relations in an era of fiscal decline: the paradox of fiscal decentralization in post-Mao China.” The China Quarterly 128, 691–715.CrossRefGoogle 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
Wu, Jing, Deng, Yongheng, Huang, Jun, Morck, Randall and Yeung, Bernard. 2013. “Incentives and outcomes: China's environmental policy.” NBER Working Paper, No. 18754.Google Scholar
Zhao, Xiaofan, Li, Huimin, Wu, Liang and Qi, Ye. 2013. “Implementation of energy-saving policies in China: how local governments assisted industrial enterprises in achieving energy-saving targets.” Energy Policy 66, 170–184.Google Scholar
Zhang, Xuehua. 2017. “Implementation of pollution control targets in China: has a centralized enforcement approach worked?” The China Quarterly, special section “Central–local relations and environmental governance in China.”Google Scholar