Resisting public monitoring in authoritarian regimes
Evidence from local environmental litigation in China
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6263743 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Xiao Zhu (0000-0003-3295-619X, Renmin University of China Law School Beijing China), Taotao Qiu (0000-0003-4449-4711, Renmin University of China Law School Beijing China), Dongshu Liu (0000-0003-2435-3233, Department of Public Policy City University of Hong Kong Kowloon Tong Hong Kong China, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2023 |
| Volume | 36 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 459-477 |
| Publication date | 2023-04-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Governance (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0952-1895 • E-ISSN: 1468-0491 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/gove.12675 |
| OpenAlex | W4206953685 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 9 |
| References cited | 33 |
Civic activism is increasingly popular for authoritarian regimes to ensure local compliance and improve local governance, but it also places pressure on local officials. How do local officials respond to such pressures? With a unique dataset of city‐level environmental investigations and public interest litigation in China, we conduct a generalized difference‐in‐difference analysis and find that public interest litigation, a new legal channel for social actors to monitor environmental governance, can significantly reduce information disclosure related to investigations. Furthermore, it changes the focus of investigations: the number of low‐profile investigations is increased, while the number of high‐profile cases is decreased. This finding reveals how local officials avoid public monitoring by reducing information disclosure but maintaining a certain level of enforcement, which implies that the effect of civic engagement on the accountability of local governments in authoritarian regimes is dynamic with the coevolution of strategies of local officials and civil societies
Accountability · Authoritarianism · Business · China · Compliance (psychology · Corporate governance · Democracy · Enforcement · Environmental governance · Law enforcement · Local governance · Local government · Political science · Politics · Public interest · Public participation · Rule of law · China's Socioeconomic Reforms and Governance · Corruption and Economic Development · Law · Political Conflict and Governance · Public Administration · Finance
Marine environmental governance for nuclear pollution
Pressure-driven or resource-driven
Staging Legality
Multilevel power structure and local compliance with government transparency mandates
Contingent Policy Design
When blame avoidance meets transparency
Pollution matters
Performing Legality
Environmental statecraft and changing spatial politics
Tying the Autocrat's Hands
Environmental Litigation in China
Civil Society under Authoritarianism
Making Autocracy Work
The Politics of Authoritarian Rule
Incentives for China's urban mayors to mitigate pollution externalities
Mass Digitization of Chinese Court Decisions
The Political Logic of China’s New Environmental Courts
Assessing China's E-Government
Requests for Environmental Information Disclosure in China
The People vs. Pollution
NGO Strategies in an Authoritarian Context, and Their Implications for Citizenship
Internal Government Assessments of the Quality of Governance in China
Governing Environmental Conflicts in China
What’s Measured Is What Matters
Undermining Authoritarian Innovation
The authoritarian logic of regulatory pluralism
Contextual Changes and Environmental Policy Implementation
Exploring political personalities
Corruption monitoring and the supply of politicians in China
Advocacy channels and political resource dependence in authoritarianism
Transparency without Democracy
Selective Policy Implementation in Rural China
The Political Evolution of Principal-Agent Models
Non‐Governmental Monitoring of Local Governments Increases Compliance with Central Mandates
Authoritarian Evolution
Civil society organizations in China
| Unique citing works | 9 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 3 |
| Citation span | 2023 - 2026 (4) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 9 |