Ecopolitical discourse: Authoritarianism or democracy? — Evidence from China

Abstract

From the discourse analysis perspective, ecopolitics has experienced a discourse change from authoritarianism to democracy. This study uses theory of authoritarianism and democracy in ecopolitics to explore the impact of authoritarian ecopolitical discourse (AED) and democratic ecopolitical discourse (DED) on environmental quality in China. After analysis using panel data and comparison of three main regions, results suggest a negative relationship between AED of the central government and environmental quality. By contrast, a positive relationship exists between AED of local governments and environmental quality. A positive relationship exists between DED, which measures the proposals of People's Congress deputies and Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), and environmental quality. Nevertheless, the positive effect of DED is weaker than that of AED. The impact is also different among the regions. Our interpretations are as follows. China's current governance mechanism is a top-down decision-making mechanism, rather than a bottom-up information transmission mechanism. The concentration of power keeps decisionmaking power and resources away from levels with considerably accurate information and capabilities in problem solving. Therefore, we suggest that governments should change their decision-making process and exert effort to be transparent to the entire society. A bottom-up mechanism of information collection and transmission should be established, such as environmental inspection mechanism and checking on cadres' achievements with green GDP.

The Interaction Mechanism of Fiscal Pressure, Local Government Behavioral Preferences and Environmental Governance Efficiency: Evidence from the Yangtze River Delta Region of China

“…The shock of changes in the alternative preference leads to fluctuations in the changes in the synergistic preference. We believe that the reason for this change in the alternative preference is that top-down decision-making and the resulting changes in institutions, structures, and policies can have a significant impact on the behavioral preferences of local governments in authoritarian China [ 40 ]. As a result, an increasing number of local governments in the YRD region began to strengthen ER driven by ecological civilization construction and the resulting array of policy tools and control measures [ 61 ].…”

“…However, they are rarely included within the same framework to discuss the changes in and relationships between the two. In authoritarian China, the top-down decision-making mechanism and the resulting changes in institutions, structures, and policies have a great impact on the behavior of local governments [ 40 ]. In addition, the environmental kuznets curve shows that the relationship between the economy and the environment is not constant and irreconcilable [ 41 ].…”

Media narratives on (Ecological) sustainability: A topic modeling analysis of entrepreneurship news in the MENA region

“…Media narratives reflect local culture, political systems, and mindsets which need to be taken into consideration when designing eco-oriented business & tech innovations and promoting a transition to a greener local economy [53,54]. In turn, media narratives also shape culture, mindsets, and behaviors [55][56][57] which may ultimately lead to change in public policy [58].…”

Environmental sustainability in the online media discourses of Saudi Arabia: A corpus-based study of keyness, intertextuality, and interdiscursivity

“…Destructive discourses emphasize excessive natural exploitation and are often proffered as a form of resistance to such destruction, as examined in [ 29 ]. On the other hand, the stand of ambivalent discourses is mixed, whereby they may be ecologically motivated but still fail to maintain politically correct discursive practices, as examined in [ 30 , 31 ]. Most relevant literature covers these two categories.…”