Down to Earth: Environmental Governance and Flexible Bureaucracy in China

The notion of “flexible bureaucracy” is an oxymoron; by definition, bureaucratic institutions are not amenable to change. The sociological literature on the East Asian developmental state has articulated the processes by which authoritarian states relied on rigid bureaucracies to implement development policies during the late twentieth century. Despite historical legacies, the authoritarian bureaucracies in East Asia have undergone substantial transformations in the last decade. This paper discusses the relaxation of bureaucratic rigidity, and devolution of political power towards non-state actors in the face of environmental challenges.

This study focuses on the case of China, seeking to understand how environmental issues have brought challenges and opportunities to the regime. How have localities in China devised different strategies to respond to pressures from above and below regarding environmental degradation? As different places experiment with innovative forms of environmental governance, what are the resulting differences in policy outcomes? These questions are not only important for understanding the current state of environmental governance in China, but also critical for contributing sociological knowledge about mechanisms of accountability, institutional isomorphism, and political legitimacy under authoritarianism.

The empirical discussion is informed by ethnographies in four Chinese cities, including Baoding, Dujiangyan, Hangzhou, and Tianjin. It also draws from archival research in Beijing.  

This paper concludes that, in China, environmental protection is the most politically devolved policy area. Thus, environmental governance exhibits significant diversity across localities. In places where the bureaucracy remains tightly controlled by the central state, environmental governance reflects a genuine commitment to ecological sustainability, even at the cost of economic growth. Contrarily, in places where the local state enjoys higher levels of autonomy and flexibility, bureaucrats are more likely to pursue partnerships with private businesses and other non-state actors. These partnerships tend to promote business development and political maneuver under the pretext of environmental protection.