Understanding the Transitions of State-Society Relations in China's Environmental Governance

State-society relations in China have undergone rapid transitions over the last two decades. On the one hand, recent years have witnessed the development of civil society from an infant stage to a relatively mature stage, with... [ view full abstract ]

State-society relations in China have undergone rapid transitions over the last two decades. On the one hand, recent years have witnessed the development of civil society from an infant stage to a relatively mature stage, with many civic NGOs from the grassroots participating in policy advocacy and service delivery. On the other hand, the Chinese government has gradually adjusted its strategy in managing civil society organizations, mainly by allowing the growth of NGOs in multiple areas and collaborating with these non-state actors in policy making and service provision. The proposed paper will examine the relationships between the party-state and civil society organizations in the environmental governance arena. Our research is based on information obtained from two rounds of in-depth interviews with civic environmental NGOs during 2003-2005 and 2010-2014, with around 30-40 NGOs in each round, supplemented by interviews with governmental officials of local environmental protection bureaus. Our preliminary analysis shows that civic environmental NGOs in China have enhanced their organizational capacity and moved to a politically more active stance. Internally, many NGOs have established a more sustainable mode of revenue and governance structures. Externally, some of them are using more sophisticated strategies to engage the state; they combine confrontation and collaboration with governments, and utilize different political opportunities created by the fragmented authoritarian political system and rising societal expectations on environmental protection. Meanwhile, the Chinese government has learned to engage NGOs, though under political constraints, to re-build its political legitimacy by incorporating public participation in environmental governance. We discuss how environmental governance in China has responded to multiple endogenous and exogenous institutional factors.