Abstract
Sustainable development requires that China’s governance structure be changed: from a state-led model to one of state-society collaboration, in which government initiatives work with civic engagements. Over the last decade, which saw rapid economic growth together with rising concerns about unsustainability, the Chinese government started to address the problem of sustainability. At the same time, many non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are trying – regardless of their varying degrees of dependence on the state – to promote sustainable development, among other things by lobbying the authoritarian government to bring a variety of stakeholders into the policy-making process. Using comparative case studies and a quantitative analysis of policy lobbying by NGOs, this study finds that many NGOs are able – regardless of their varying degrees of autonomy from the state – to influence government policy-making through various channels. At the same time, there is quantitative evidence suggesting that sustainability-related NGOs – i.e. NGOs dedicated to the defence of the environment and of vulnerable social groups – have a stronger degree of policy influence compared to other NGOs.
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Notes
- 1.
There have been many theoretical and empirical studies of civil society over the last 20 years. For a review of civil society’s implications for transitional countries, see Ding (1994). For some edited volumes on the development of civil society in China, see Miller (1992) and Brook and Frolic (1997). I have reviewed some of this literature in Zhang (2015), so I will not discuss the details in this chapter.
- 2.
This fits the state-in-society approach well: neither the state nor society are unitary actors – they are divided into different segments. Different state actors may have very different interests and ideas, as may different social actors. To achieve their goals, certain state actors ally with certain social actors, sometimes against alliances between other state actors and social actors. See Migdal (2001) for a theoretical discussion.
- 3.
Wang Yongchen, “Do Not Make a River as Many Pools”, 28 November 2013, http://www.21ccom.net/articles/zgyj/gmht/article_2013112896083.html
- 4.
“Green River: The Strategy of Survival of a Grassroots Environment Organization.” http://xiamag.com/29444.html
- 5.
Report on China’s nonofficial environment NGOs 2008 and 2010, cited in Ren, Chong and Yaya Jiang, “The Status of Grassroots Environment NGOs in China”, Jiefang Daily, 13 December 2014
- 6.
Many social organizations in China are not legally registered, due to China’s restrictive registration laws on NGOs. See White (1993) for a discussion of four types of social organizations.
- 7.
National-level cities in China have the same administrative level as provinces.
- 8.
Scholars present a variety of arguments on whether social resources are equally distributed among social groups. While pluralist theorists like Dahl (1982) hold that resources are distributed in a dispersed way, Lowi (1969) finds that the resources are distributed in an accumulated manner in society – meaning that the advantaged few hold almost everything and the disadvantaged hold little.
- 9.
The two criteria Najam uses are the match of the government and NGO’s respective (1) goals and preferences and (2) the means.
- 10.
Supplementary model refers to “nonprofits are seen as fulfilling the demand for public goods left unsatisfied by government”. Complementary model refers to “nonprofits are seen as partners to government, helping to carry out the delivery of public goods largely financed by government”. And adversarial model refers to “nonprofits prod government to make changes in public policy and to maintain accountability to the public. Reciprocally, government attempts to influence the behaviour of nonprofit organizations by regulating its services and responding to its advocacy initiatives as well (Young 2000: 150–151)”.
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Changdong, Z. (2019). Civic Engagement and Sustainable Development in Urban China: Policy Lobbying by Social Organizations. In: Delman, J., Ren, Y., Luova, O., Burell, M., Almén, O. (eds) Greening China’s Urban Governance. ARI - Springer Asia Series, vol 7. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-0740-9_12
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