Rethinking Environmental Bureaucracies in River Chiefs System (RCS) in China: A Critical Literature Study

Qidong Huang and Jiajun Xu
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Qidong Huang: Department of Sociology, School of Public Administration, Hohai University, Nanjing 211100, China
Jiajun Xu: Department of Sociology, School of Public Administration, Hohai University, Nanjing 211100, China

Sustainability, 2019, vol. 11, issue 6, 1-13

Abstract: Efforts to understand the political complexities of water governance must include critical hierarchical or bureaucratical perspectives. The River Chiefs System, China’s national mechanism which has evolved from local attempts, values more political control than governance efficiency. Water governance, which is regarded as a political task, is allocated from river chiefs at higher levels to lower levels. The River Chiefs System stipulates that local river chiefs fully mobilize and integrate various technical and administrative forces to achieve environmental goals. However, the strengthening of local authority enables local river chiefs to combat or eliminate state power. Although public involvement in the River Chiefs System is encouraged to some extent, “government-dependent” public participation hardly ensures real public involvement and supervision.

Keywords: water resources management; environmental bureaucracies; decentralization; centralization; River Chiefs System (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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