Mass Mobilization in China and Russia: From Unexpected Victories to Unintended Consequences

Abstract

Despite the increasingly authoritarian atmosphere in Russia and China, mass protests in both countries are pervasive, including protest motivated by environmental grievances. Existing scholarship often focuses on the sources, spread, or volume of mass mobilization, but few examine how civil society actors themselves evaluate the tactic. How does the state respond to environmentally-motivated mass mobilization? In light of the state’s response, how have activists altered their approach to mass mobilization over time? Using case studies and interviews, I find that Russian and Chinese environmental groups approach mass mobilization in distinct ways. Over time, Russian activists have increasingly turned to mass tactics, including coordinated regional protest. Meanwhile, Chinese ENGOs have reduced their formal involvement in such campaigns, limiting visible horizontal linkages between environmental groups. These approaches are shaped by the different historical legacies of mass mobilization in either country, which also shape state perceptions of the threat posed by environmental activism.

Environmental Politics in Authoritarian Regimes: Waste Management in Russian Regions

“…The central government started administrative reforms in 2018 to increase state capacity in environmental policy and improve environmental bureaucracy, and consolidated power under the roof of the new Ministry of Ecology and Environment (Kostka and Zhang 2018). Under Xi Jinping the involvement of environmental NGOs in policy processes and highprofile campaigns became more limited, especially after the 2017 Chinese Foreign NGO Law (Demchuk et al 2021;Plantan 2018). Moreover, harsher punishments were introduced for violations of environmental protection regulations and for nonfulfillment of environmental targets by local officials (Kostka and Zhang 2018).…”

Public protests and environmental policy‐making: The cases of Xiamen antiparaxylene protests in China and the civic movement against Kodaikkanal mercury poisoning in India

“…Environmental protests, whether successful or failed, are part of participatory politics (Plantan, 2015(Plantan, , 2018 and hence they can also be considered as one of the movements towards democratization of political societies. According to Maarten Wolsink (1994), many hazardous chemical-producing factories from the developed economies faced stringent environmental public protests in the 1980s (Wolsink, 1994) due to the waves of environmental rights/quality consciousness that emerged in the West (Nawrotzki, 2012).…”