Determinants of environmental public participation in China: an aggregate level study based on political opportunity theory and post-materialist values theory

ABSTRACT

The level of public participation in response to environmental issues in China has significantly increased over the past 10 years. This expansion of participation occurred as the government was pursuing legislative and regulatory approaches to address environmental pollution. Factors contributing to the development of environmental public participation are explored based on the political opportunity theory and post-materialist values theory. Two participation styles are used as dependent variables in a panel data framework. The empirical results of an analysis of provincial level data indicate that the degree of openness to participation and economic development level show consistently significant impacts on the levels of different environmental participation styles, thus demonstrating the applicability of the political opportunity theory and Inglehart’s post-materialist values theory in predicting environmental public participation in China. The results also show that other variables, including educational level and environmental pollution level have different or even reverse effects depending on the form of participation examined. In general, the results are consistent with cross-national studies of environmental policy development and political participation.

KEYWORDS:

• Public participation
• environmental protection
• environmental complaint
• political opportunity theory
• post-materialist values theory
• China

Notes on contributors

Xiaojie Zhang is an associate professor in the Department of Public Administration, School of Humanities & Law at Northeastern University. Her recent work addresses structural and psychological determinants of environmental public participation in China, institutional innovations for citizens’ participation, and the effects of public participation.

Edward T. Jennings, Jr. is Provost’s Distinguished Service Professor in the Martin School of Public Policy and Administration at the University of Kentucky. He is a fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration and past president of the American Society for Public Administration. He is recipient of the Charles H. Levine Award for excellence in teaching, research, and service. Jennings’s recent work addresses the formulation, implementation, and consequences of public policy, links between public management and the performance of public agencies, factors affecting the degree to which governments engage in evidence-based policy and management, and the impact of the Great Recession on social welfare policies in the American states.

Ke Zhao is an associate professor in the College of Public Administration at Huazhong Agricultural University. His recent work addresses land economics, environmental economics and environmental policy.

Notes

1 We analyse the two dependent variables separately because they measure different things. The complaint letter is made through mails, but complaint visit is made face to face with government officials.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the [National Science Foundation of China] under Grant [number 15CZZ008]; [Ministry of Education of China] under Grant [number N151402006]; and [National Natural Science Foundation of China] under Grant [number 71403045]. The authors wish to express their gratitude to Emily Bedwell for her assistance in data compilation and preliminary analysis.