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Chapter 3 - Why Blunt Force Regulation?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 January 2023

Denise Sienli van der Kamp
Denise Sienli van der Kamp
Affiliation:
University of Oxford
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Summary

This chapter starts with the central puzzle of this book: Why do governments choose blunt force regulation to control pollution when more reasonable, sustainable solutions are possible? It proposes that governments choose this suboptimal approach because they seek, first and foremost, to overcome principal–agent problems within the state apparatus. Drawing on case research and interviews with government officials around China, this chapter illustrates how blunt force regulation creates shortcuts that allow political leaders to increase the credible threat of punishment towards noncompliant bureaucrats. These measures temporarily scare local authorities into enforcing policies as ordered, even after prolonged periods of noncompliance. Finally, this chapter offers some observable implications for this theory, which will be tested in ensuing chapters.

Keywords

Bureaucratic noncompliancestate capacityinfrastructural powerinformation asymmetriesregulatory complexityenvironmental governance
Type
Chapter
Information
Clean Air at What Cost?
The Rise of Blunt Force Regulation in China
 , pp. 49 - 63
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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