Chapter 4 - Blunt Force Regulation and Bureaucratic Control

Summary

This chapter tests the theory proposed in Chapter 3: that blunt force regulation is used not to scare polluters into respecting pollution standards, but to scare bureaucrats into respecting central orders. It begins with process tracing on a case of blunt force regulation from southern China to show that two common explanations for this phenomenon – deterring excess pollution and reducing industrial overcapacity – fail to account for local authorities’ indiscriminate shutdown of polluting industries. Instead, the sequence of events reveals how local officials undertook blunt force regulation in response to sudden scrutiny from higher-level officials. Quantitative methods are then used to test this theory on a national scale. Results demonstrate that cities in which local officials were underenforcing pollution regulations were more likely to be subjected to blunt force pollution regulation than those with high levels of pollution or industrial overcapacity. These findings reveal that blunt force regulation is undertaken as a form of bureaucratic control.