Antinomic policy-making under the fragmented authoritarianism: Regulating China’s electricity sector through the energy-climate-environment dimension

Hao Zhang

Energy Policy, 2019, vol. 128, issue C, 162-169

Abstract: This article examines China's Electric Power Law and the recent policies governing China's electricity sector from the energy-climate-environment dimension. Using the fragmented authoritarianism framework, it captures the legal system that is still rooted in the pre-reform era, and the antinomic policy making that is driven by the policy imperative to accommodate the shifting pattern of energy supply, the growing awareness over climate mitigation and environmental protection. By examining the most recent policy imperatives on regulating new investment and efficiency, and pricing deregulation, this article focuses on changes in the policy arena and their impacts on the regulatory governance of China's electricity sector. Using the methodology of qualitative study, this article critically investigates these policy changes that generate incompatible regulatory concerns. The incompatibility creates competing regulatory concerns over energy-climate-environment in the policy making process, and generates discord between China's central and provincial governments. Dealing with the challenges will depend on developing a legal framework for China's electricity sector. Findings of this article echoes with energy law scholars’ point of view that energy law has a much bigger role to play to balance different or competing policy agendas to deliver better energy policy that delivers the expected outcomes for society.

Keywords: Fragmented authoritarianism; Electricity sector; Energy law and policy; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421519300035
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:enepol:v:128:y:2019:i:c:p:162-169

DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2019.01.003

Access Statistics for this article

Energy Policy is currently edited by N. France

More articles in Energy Policy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().