Journal Article - Environmental Politics

Modernisation, Authoritarianism, and the Environment: The Politics of China's South-North Water Transfer Project

| November 2014

Abstract

China presents a paradox for scholars of environmental politics. Environmental politics and policymaking in China now includes elements critical to environmental protection in the West, including non-governmental participation and stringent environmental legislation. Yet the country's authoritarian system constrains popular participation, and environmental outcomes are generally poor. China's South–North Water Transfer Project (SNWTP) embodies this puzzle: despite the pluralisation and development of environmental politics and policymaking, the SNWTP is a technocratic mega-project that imposes high social, economic, and environmental costs. What explains this puzzle, and what are the implications for understanding environmental politics in other authoritarian developing countries? I evaluate two current theories — Ecological Modernisation and Authoritarian Environmentalism — against the SNWTP case, and argue that it illustrates the ability of governments to co-opt environmental politics to pursue other strategic objectives, in turn necessitating greater attention to the mix of persuasive and coercive strategies in environmental politics.

Read the entire article here (log in may be required): http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09644016.2014.943544

For more information on this publication: Please contact Energy Technology Innovation Policy
For Academic Citation: Moore, Scott. “Modernisation, Authoritarianism, and the Environment: The Politics of China's South-North Water Transfer Project.” Environmental Politics, vol. 23. no. 6. (November 2014):
1-20
.

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