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The power of policy networks in authoritarian regimes: Changing environmental policy in China
Author(s) -
Teets Jessica
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
governance
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.46
H-Index - 76
eISSN - 1468-0491
pISSN - 0952-1895
DOI - 10.1111/gove.12280
Subject(s) - authoritarianism , agency (philosophy) , civil society , china , government (linguistics) , construct (python library) , work (physics) , power (physics) , political science , exploit , public administration , control (management) , economic system , politics , political economy , democracy , economics , sociology , law , management , physics , quantum mechanics , mechanical engineering , social science , linguistics , philosophy , computer security , computer science , programming language , engineering
In this article, I examine how civil society organizations (CSOs) in China created policy networks among government officials to change environmental policies. I contend that these networks work in similar ways to those in democracies, despite the focus in the literature on how policymaking in authoritarian regimes lacks societal participation. China adopted strict regulations to control CSOs by requiring registration with a supervisory agency. However, CSOs exploit the regulations to use the supervisory agency as an access point to policymakers whom they otherwise could not reach. I use case studies to demonstrate how the strategies used to construct policy networks determined their success in changing policy. This finding represents an initial step in theorizing bottom‐up sources of policymaking in authoritarian regimes given that these regimes all create mechanisms for government control over CSOs, have difficulty accessing good information for policymaking from society, and a policy process formally closed to citizen participation.