Role of Law, Position of Actor and Linkage of Policy in China’s National Environmental Governance System, 1972–2016

Rui Mu
Additional contact information
Rui Mu: Department of Public Administration and Law, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, China

Sustainability, 2018, vol. 10, issue 4, 1-16

Abstract: China is struggling between accelerating environmental protection and accelerating environmental damage. Although the central government is investing extensively in environmental laws and policies, China’s annual environmental goals have hardly been achieved. What is often poorly recognized by top decision-makers is that the environmental governance system is so complex that multiple elements, including laws, policy items, actors and issues, have become intentionally or emergently entangled. Without knowing the roles, positions and interconnections of the system elements, it is difficult for people to find the critical points for further improvements. Taking this challenge, this research conducts a retrospective analysis on the developmental trajectory of China’s environmental governance. The analysis helps us to pinpoint the role of law, the position of actor, and the linkage of policy that promote or prevent environmental protection; it can also question or reaffirm the effectiveness of the environmental laws and policies, and thereby aid China’s future prognosis and some recommendations.

Keywords: environmental governance; environmental policy; complex system; policy network; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/4/1065/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/4/1065/ (text/html)

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:gam:jsusta:v:10:y:2018:i:4:p:1065-:d:139416

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().