Changes in Enforcement Styles and Shifts in Stakeholder Support for Environmental Protection in China: The Case of Dalian

Existing enforcement research mainly focuses on the role of institutional support in determining enforcement effectiveness, while ignored the process that enforcement officials’ behavioral patterns could also be shaped by... [ view full abstract ]

Existing enforcement research mainly focuses on the role of institutional support in determining enforcement effectiveness, while ignored the process that enforcement officials’ behavioral patterns could also be shaped by government and societal support. This research examines the changing role of institutional support for environmental protection on frontline officials’ enforcement styles. Drawn on the literature on regulatory enforcement, we propose that government support enhances front line officials’ use of sanctioning styles while discourage the selection of less confrontational enforcement styles, whereas, support from societal entities, suppresses the adoption of sanctioning styles while increase the use of less-confrontational styles. These associations are likely to be more evidenced in a more established regulatory environment. We conducted two rounds of questionnaire survey with environmental protection officials in the years of 2000 and 2010 in Dalian, China. We found that the level of local government support has significantly declined during the decade, while the level of societal support for environmental protection appears to be basically unchanged. Our findings provide both evidence to support the hypotheses and results that generate new insights.