Public Participation in China: Strengths, Weaknesses, and Lessons Learned

Enserink, Bert; Alberton, Mariachiara

doi:10.1142/s1464333216500058

Cited by 13 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…The Chinese government first recognized the importance of public participation in the early 1990s to help ameliorate growing environmental problems (Enserink and Alberton, 2016), and in 2002 the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Law and its subsequent implementing regulations provided a legal basis for public consultation in siting decisions for the first time. i…”

Section: Environmental Public Participation In Chinamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The central government also passed legislation to incorporate public participation into the administrative licensing process, and, in 2008, the Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) issued Temporary Measures on Environmental Information Disclosure to boost environmental transparency (Moore and Warren, 2006;Zhang, Mol and He, 2016). More recently, China's updated Environmental Protection Law ( 2014) dedicated an entire chapter to "Information Disclosure and Public Participation" (Enserink and Alberton, 2016). All projects that require an EIA report should solicit public opinion, with the exception of projects that involve state secrets (Brombal, Moriggi and Marcomini, 2017).…”

Section: Environmental Public Participation In Chinamentioning

confidence: 99%

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Public participation in China's EIA process and the regulation of environmental disputes

Johnson

2020

Environmental Impact Assessment Review

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This article reconsiders the role that public participation in the environmental impact assessment (EIA) process plays in China. Whilst some commentators have found that public participation has largely failed to make an impact in China, this article argues that it has been an important focal point during environmental disputes over siting decisions. The principles of transparency and public participation embodied in EIA legislation have been prominent frames used to legitimize public action against locally-unwanted-land-uses when decisions are taken unilaterally without sufficient public input or notification. In this sense, the EIA becomes a lightning rod for citizen claims-making in relation to siting disputes. At the same time, these principles help depoliticize contention by channeling it within state-approved discourses and enable officials to buy time and defuse tension. Here, EIA serves as a shock absorber, helping contribute to social stability when disputes break out. By showing how public participation regulations are closely intertwined with contentious politics, this article highlights the paradoxical and contradictory nature of public participation in China.

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Section: Environmental Public Participation In Chinamentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Environmental Public Participation In Chinamentioning

confidence: 99%

Public participation in China's EIA process and the regulation of environmental disputes

Johnson

2020

Environmental Impact Assessment Review

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“…The SP process consists of only 2 mandatory forms: information disclosure and questionnaire. It lacks a channel for both sides to have face‐to‐face communication to effectively express their opinions and carry out inquiry and debate (Enserink and Alberton ). Because the current SP institutional arrangement cannot meet the demands of the public in expressing their appeal and safeguarding their interests, the public has no choice but to take extreme massive action to force the government to hear their voice.…”

Section: Lessons Insights and Recommendations For Reengineering Spmentioning

confidence: 99%

Institutional Analysis on Stakeholder Participation in China's Environmental Impact Assessment: A State–Attribution–Motivation–Interaction–Reengineering Framework

2019

Integr Envir Assess & Manag

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Environmental impact assessments (EIAs) play an essential role in promoting sustainable development by coordinating and balancing economic, social, and environmental objectives. As one of its mandatory components, stakeholder participation (SP) is designed to contribute to the implementation of EIAs as well as the relevant decision making with regard to a proposed project. Stakeholder participation ranges from being a token process to being a very effective practice; it has been criticized as ineffective in an authoritarian context. This research investigates the SP process of project EIAs via 3 case studies. A developed State–Attribution–Motivation– Interaction–Reengineering (SAMIR) framework is used to identify the causes, results, and substantive changes among 3 main actors or organizations: citizens, enterprises, and local governments. It demonstrates that the endogenous interactions among 3 institutional pillars—regulative, normative, and cognitive—are the root of institutional change. Initial cognitive actions can lead to regulative and normative social institutional change, thus stimulating the reengineering of the institutions’ system relevant to SP. To facilitate institutional innovation and reengineering of SP with Chinese characteristics, it is of crucial importance to deeply reform and detail institutional design, to promote the SP governance structural change from a closed model to an open model. In order for such change to occur, the following are recommended: Move from government to governance, have institutional innovations follow the mass line, pay more attention to fairness rather than focusing on efficiency, and in addition, disseminate science and promote actors’ communication. The benefits and advantages are instruments to overcome the “not in my backyard” (NIMBY) impact. And reengineering government structural change from and administration paradigm to a governance paradigm plays a primary role. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2019;15:607–620. © 2019 SETAC

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“…Research related to the relationship between planning participation and performance does not produce full and varied consensus [4,5,6,7]. Human resource capacity as an input factor for participatory planning is still inadequate [8] as well as participatory planning process in producing proposals as outputs that are needed by the community [9,10,11,12,13].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Relationship of Participative planning, Planning Alignment and Regional Development Performance: Evidence from Special Region of Yogyakarta

Toham¹,

Rustiadi²,

Juanda³

et al. 2021

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Participatory planning is a necessity. Unfortunately, participatory planning has various problems that make it ineffective. Human resource capacity as an input factor for participatory planning is still inadequate. The participatory planning process has not optimized the best way of producing the outputs that are needed by the community. Spatial aspects of planning, activities in the space, and budgeting must be aligned. However, empirical facts show the inconsistency of development planning. The purpose of this study is to analyze the relationship between community participation in planning and regional development performance through spatial planning, development, and budget planning alignment, as the mediating variable. This study explore measurement of all three variables using quantitative indicators. The results of this study, using SEM PLS, indicate that the direct relationship of community participation and the performance of infrastructure development is significant if it does not include the mediation variable. Process, results of participatory planning, alignment of spatial and development plans, and alignment of strategic plans with work plans are significant variables. Therefore, local governments need to make efforts to improve participation processes in spatial planning and development so as to improve the regional development planning alignment and performance

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Public Participation in China: Strengths, Weaknesses, and Lessons Learned

Cited by 13 publications

References 20 publications

Public participation in China's EIA process and the regulation of environmental disputes

Public participation in China's EIA process and the regulation of environmental disputes

Institutional Analysis on Stakeholder Participation in China's Environmental Impact Assessment: A State–Attribution–Motivation–Interaction–Reengineering Framework

Relationship of Participative planning, Planning Alignment and Regional Development Performance: Evidence from Special Region of Yogyakarta

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