Understanding China's dam-induced resettlement under the institutionalised governance process of policy coevolution

Abstract

Development-induced involuntary resettlement has been intensively studied, demonstrating its essential role in the discussion of development studies, water governance and hydropower research. As the world's largest hydropower developer, however, China's dam-induced resettlement policy process remains largely unknown, so as its interactions with the larger governance system and policies of other sectors. The aim here, in this present study, was to identify the policy coevolution processes from three perspectives – national policy dynamics, local-central interactions, and across-sector coevolution between resettlement policy and land reform policy. Two cases studies of large dam-induced resettlement in Manwan project and Longkaikou project were presented to assess the performance of such a policy coevolution process. The findings revealed the dynamics of policy coevolution processes under China's unique institutionalised governance system, and their validity and shortcomings were tested by empirical evidence and observations. Overall, this study filled in a gap between ‘fragmented authoritarianism’ and ‘institutional bricolage’ for understanding China's dam-induced resettlement policy framework and process, and it encouraged dynamic study of policy processes in different institutional contexts.