***Announcement: Taiwan Fellowship: deadline June 30th, 2013.
Forthcoming events
Seminar Programme 2012-13: Semester 2
(supported by the MacFie Bequest and the Confucius Institute at University of Glasgow)
Dr Lei Xie, University of Exeter
“Democratic principles and their practice in China’s environmental decision making”
Thursday 2nd May, 4-5:30pm, Room 718, Adam Smith Building
Abstract
In China, public involvement in environmental governance has been identified as a distinct policy arena that sees an increasing incorporation of democratic procedures. The existing scholarship has provided little systematic evaluation on this respect. This article examines the patterns, characteristics and consequences of public participation in China’s environmental policy development. By defining democratic principles in four dimensions, hypotheses on the participatory agenda are developed to investigate the practice of democratic procedures and the outcome of China’s environmental participation. Three policy areas are selected including ecological reconstruction, water management and waste management. This article concludes that deliberative democracy has been practised in China’s environmental decision making process. Correlation can be found between positive policy outcomes and the level of democratic principles realized. It also infers that the rationale behind the government promotion of such practices lies in ameliorating its policy making and implementation.
Dr Lei Xie was appointed Lecturer in Politics at the University of Exeter, Cornwall Campus in 2010. She received her doctoral degree from Environmental Policy Group at Wageningen University. Lei has worked in Beijing, HK and London on issues of NGOs and voluntary sector and climate politics in China. Her main research areas are transnational social movements, environmental politics and environmental communication. Her main publications include Environmental Activism in China (Routledge, 2009); "China’s Environmental Activism in the Age of Globalization" Asian Politics and Policy 3 (2011, with H. A. van der Heijden); "Environmental movements and political opportunities: the case of China", Social Movement Studies 9:1 (2010).