Changing institutions for environmental policy and politics in New Era China

ABSTRACT

The evolution of Chinese environmental policy and politics can be better understood in the broader context of institutional changes that have taken place since the late 1970s. In this study, an analytical framework was established to analyze how overall institutional changes were reflected in the roles of relationships between governmental and non-governmental actors engaged in environmental governance. Institutional changes were observed at three levels: informal institutions (cultural traditions, and political ideology); formal institutions (the polity, political system, property rights, and judiciary); and governing mechanisms (structures, regulatory approaches, and incentives). This analysis of interactions between institutional changes and the changing environmental process explained not only the drives and constraints behind China’s environmental policy evolution so far but also shed light on future challenges and opportunities.

KEYWORDS:

• Institutional changes
• environmental politics
• new environmentalism
• New Era
• China

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. This is a high-level grouping, guiding, and coordinating reform. It was established in December 2013, is led by Xi Jinping and, on average, meets monthly.

Additional information

Funding

This work was jointly funded by the Ministry of Science and Technology of China(MOST) and the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences(KNAW) (grant number. 2016YFE0103100), the “Sustainable Resource Management for Adequate and Safe Food Provision (SURE+)”.