Command Without Control: The Case of China's Environmental Target System

Abstract

In the existing literature there is general agreement that the effectiveness and efficiency of and instruments versus market-based instruments is highly context specific. A country’s particular regulatory environment and state capacity, as well as the features of given environmental problems, play an important role in ascertaining what the right set of policy instruments for environmental management might be. This article examines how and instruments are used as an environmental enforcement mechanism in China’s authoritarian state. Based on extensive fieldwork, this paper shows that the reliance on binding environmental targets as the main domestic policy instrument in China has generated numerous undesirable consequences. While China’s target-based approach to implementation has incentivized local officials to strictly enforce environmental mandates, there are numerous shortcomings in the system. In particular, target rigidity, cyclical behaviour, poor data quality, and the absence of an independent monitoring agency have generated adverse effects and contribute to a yawning gap between regulatory goals and outcomes. The paper concludes that binding environmental targets as the main command-control instrument in China can be more accurately described as command without control as the target-setting central government does not exercise a high degree of over implementation and monitoring processes. But and instruments can be suited for managing first-generation environmental problems and addressing environmental issues that have easily identifiable pollution sources and which are easy to verify.