Top-Down and Bottom-Up Approaches to Environmental Governance in China: Evidence from the River Chief System (RCS).

Jie Ouyang,Yuanping Lu,Bo Wen,Kezhong Zhang

doi:10.3390/ijerph17197058

Abstract

A common argument is that the comprehensive implementation of the river chief system (RCS) is a clear indication of the Chinese government’s strong commitment to overcoming the problem of water pollution. Scant attention, nonetheless, has been afforded to systematically examining the economic and social effects of this pioneering policy. Based on news reports and data from regions in which the RCS was piloted, this paper fills in a critical literature gap by unpacking the environmental, economic, and societal benefits accrued from this river-based management approach. Specifically, by employing a difference-in-differences (DID) method, this study shows that (1) overall, the adoption of the RCS has significantly reduced the discharge of sewage per unit of GDP and improved water quality to a considerable extent; (2) the RCS, functioning under China’s top-down bureaucratic structure, coupled with increasing encouragement of bottom-up oversight and citizen participation, has provided local governments with strong incentives to improve water quality in a timely manner in their respective jurisdictions through the introduction of a plethora of measures, ranging from increased investment in wastewater treatment to faithful enforcement of environmental regulations; (3) the positive changes anticipated as a result of the RCS cannot be materialized in regions that have difficulties sustaining economic growth or facilitating cross-boundary policy coordination; and (4) the long-term effectiveness of the RCS is based on its ability to compel local enterprises to innovate their modes of operation, ultimately leading to regional industrial upgrading. The paper concludes by discussing how these empirical findings can help policymakers devise feasible tactics for confronting the causes of China’s current environmental predicament in the context of improving the alignment of individual officials’ political aspirations with targeted environmental outcomes.

Highlights

Forging solutions to effectively curtail the pollution of rivers and lakes has become an essential governance task that must be accomplished by the majority of developing countries
Owing to the fact that the river chief system (RCS) as a policy instrument is being steadfastly drawn on by other municipalities in China and has recently been institutionalized by the central government as a must-have component of local environmental regulatory regimes, this paper investigates the generalizability of the Wuxi experience, assessing whether the RCS setup, which simultaneously reflects the interplay processes of China’s bottom-up and top-down environmental management, is effective in curbing the problems of local water pollution
By gauging the effectiveness of the RCS, an institutional pioneered by a number of Chinese local governments and subsequently promoted and propagated innovation pioneered by a number of Chinese local governments and subsequently promoted and nationwide, this paper identifies a promising avenue through which water pollution can be more propagated nationwide, this paper identifies a promising avenue through which water pollution can effectively managed in China

Summary

Introduction

Forging solutions to effectively curtail the pollution of rivers and lakes has become an essential governance task that must be accomplished by the majority of developing countries. China is a prominent case in point. Over the past four decades, China has experienced miraculous economic growth by virtue of its opening-up reform, which has concomitantly been accompanied by problems such as severe environmental degradation and water pollution [1,2]. Res. Public Health 2020, 17, 7058; doi:10.3390/ijerph17197058 www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph

Methods

Discussion

Conclusion