1,721,203 research outputs found
The Advance of the State in Contemporary China: State-Market Relations in the Reform Era
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Authoritarian environmentalism undermined? Local leaders' time horizons and environmental policy implementation in China
No full textChina's national leaders see restructuring and diversification away from resource-based, energy intensive industries as central goals in the coming years. On the basis of extensive fieldwork in China between 2010 and 2012, we suggest that the high turnover of leading cadres at the local level may hinder state-led greening growth initiatives. Frequent cadre turnover is intended primarily to keep local Party secretaries and mayors on the move in order to promote the implementation of central directives. While rotation does seem to aid implementation by reducing coordination problems, there are also significant downsides to local leaders changing office every three to four years. Officials with short time horizons are likely to choose the path of least resistance in selecting quick, low-quality approaches to the implementation of environmental policies. We conclude that the perverse effects of local officials’ short time horizons give reason to doubt the more optimistic claims about the advantages of China's model of environmental authoritarianism
Crisis and the Consolidation of International Accounting Standards: Enron, The IASB, and America
No full textThis paper examines the interplay between leading international and American accounting authorities over the span of a critical four-year period, 2001–2005. Historically, US regulators and private-sector accounting institutions have taken a cautious approach to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs), citing the superior rigor and overall quality of their own Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP). During the past four years, however, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) have each become markedly receptive to the International Accounting Standards Board's (IASB) efforts to harmonize accounting standards worldwide based on IFRSs. Why? This paper offers an explanation that highlights the role of the high-profile American corporate scandals (2001–2002) in precipitating a shift in US accounting authorities' views of the optimal form of accounting rules, an issue that has stood in the way of trans-Atlantic accounting standard convergence. Prior to the accounting scandals, the highly-detailed rules that are characteristic of US GAAP were widely seen to be the most effective form of accounting rule. Since 2002, a normative shift has taken place such that the SEC now endorses objectives-oriented rules that are conceptually aligned with the principles-based standards promulgated by the IASB. The analysis is framed by insights from contemporary International Relations theory which emphasize the influence of scope conditions on patterns of governance
What makes for good and bad neighbours? An emerging research agenda in the study of Chinese environmental politics
No full textCentral Protectionism in China: The “Central SOE Problem” in Environmental Governance
No full textAbstractThis article examines the so-called “central State Owned Enterprise (SOE) problem” in China's environmental governance system, namely central SOEs' defiance of environmental regulation. We present evidence showing that, in the last decade, central SOEs have been the source of a large number of serious pollution incidents and have often failed to comply with environmental guidelines and regulations. Central SOEs in the electricity generation and oil and gas industries are particularly culpable, with six firms alone accounting for 62 per cent of all 2,370 reported violations (2004–2016). We argue that a combination of “central protectionism” of state-owned national champions and insufficient regulatory capacity in the environmental bureaucracy have provided state firms under central management with both incentives and opportunities to shirk on environmental regulations. Yet, while the institutions of central protectionism are deeply rooted, countervailing forces within the complex Chinese state are also gaining momentum. In spite of the considerable regulatory challenges, officials in the environment bureaucracy display increasing resolve and ingenuity in trying to strengthen their enforcement capacity.</jats:p
A principal–agent analysis of China's sovereign wealth system: Byzantine by design
No full textThe paper provides an explanation for a puzzling aspect of China's nascent sovereign wealth system, namely the ever-more obvious competition between China's officially designated sovereign wealth fund (SWF), the China Investment Corporation (CIC), and the foreign exchange reserve management agency, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE). We outline an analytical framework which illuminates the various pathways by which state leaders seek to address a principal–agent problem common to all sovereign wealth funds. We suggest that state leaders select corporate governance regimes that mesh with what we call the state's ‘governance endowments’. We then substantiate the claim that China's particular governance endowments have led China's leaders to embrace a corporate governance model premised on competition among the state's sovereign wealth investors. We trace the intense bureaucratic conflicts that shaped the creation of CIC and then show how SAFE was subsequently drawn into competition with CIC in the area of high risk, high yield investment. Although China's SWF tournament emerged as a quite unintended consequence of bureaucratic politics, China's leadership has since tacitly endorsed this rivalry because it has supplied the government with valuable carrot and stick mechanisms with which to discipline fund managers
Does Cadre Turnover Help or Hinder China's Green Rise? Evidence from Shanxi Province
No full textIn the last decade Beijing has presided over an ambitious effort to lay the foundations of a green economy. The clear message sent by China's top leadership is that environmental constraints and resource scarcity imperil future economic growth and social harmony in China. Greening growth initiatives---here defined as measures promoting the use of less resources for economic growth---aim to help China change lanes from a heavily polluting, growth-at-any-cost model to a resource-efficient and low-carbon model. Yet, Beijing's various efforts to steer China in the direction of greener growth have often met with resistance during policy implementation, when sub-national leaders take center stage. This study argues that, among a range of factors that shape the local politics of greening growth, the frequent turnover of local leaders contributes to the green implementation gap
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