Multilevel Environmental Governance: Vertical and Horizontal Influences in Local Policy Networks

Abstract

In the context of multilevel governance, collaboration among governmental and non-governmental entities across different levels of government is increasingly popular in China’s environmental governance. Policy actors are engaged in two types of collaboration with other local governments: horizontal and vertical collaboration. Policy actors participate in horizontal collaboration when they work with entities at the same level, and in vertical collaboration when working with governments at different levels. This study examines multilevel environmental governance in China by studying how the decisions of policy actors to participate in local water governance networks are influenced by vertical pressures from higher level government and horizontal influences from other policy actors at the same level. We approach the research questions in the empirical context of local water governance in Dongguan city of Guangdong Province. With survey data collected from 31 municipal departments, 32 town governments, nine water-related private businesses and five NGOs, we tested the hypotheses with Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regressions. The results indicate that vertical pressure and horizontal brokerage are both drivers for participation in the local water governance network.

Water Governance in Mediterranean Farming Systems through the Social-Ecological Systems Framework—An Empirical Case in Southern Portugal

“…Local water characteristics and climate change are directly related to and affected by land use. In this regard, adapting the actions of institutions in water management at a local scale, through greater integration of local departments and strengthening the local cooperative network, can act to promote better management and sustainability of water resources [75].…”

What Motivates Local Sustainability Policy Action in China? The Case of Low-Carbon City Pilot Program

“…A growing literature has applied the multi-level governance approach to characterize the reforming sustainability governance in China (Balme and Ye 2014; Homsy, Liu, and Warner 2019; Miao and Lang 2015; Miao and Li 2017; Yi et al 2019), although some may question the extent to which China represents a multi-level governance system (Westman, Broto, and Huang 2019). For instance, local climate policy adoption by US cities is most significantly driven by local community support and interest groups (Yeganeh, McCoy, and Schenk 2020).…”

“…Yet China’s urban sustainability governance is dominated by authoritarian, top-down decision making where public participation remains limited and often ineffective (Kostka and Mol 2013; Westman, Broto, and Huang 2019). But more scholars argued that four decades of governance reform have fundamentally changed the traditional bureaucratic hierarchy of policymaking in China, allowing for more bottom-up initiatives, societal engagement, and horizontal interactions across jurisdictions to shape local policy decisions (Ongaro, Gong, and Jing 2018) and in local environmental governance in particular (Homsy, Liu, and Warner 2019; Yi et al 2019).…”

“…The central government also actively incentivizes local climate policy innovation through adopting national climate strategies and initiating experimental programs (Miao and Li 2017). At the same time, local governments engage in horizontal learning and collaboration to promote sustainability, sometimes under vertical pressure of upper-level authorities (Homsy, Liu, and Warner 2019; Yi et al 2018, 2019).…”

“…Unlike climate policy innovations in Western cities, which tend to be locally initiated, LCCP is a pilot program initiated by China’s central government in 2010 to stimulate local actions in low-carbon development. After drawing hypotheses from the theoretical perspectives of multi-level sustainability governance (Hawkins, Kwon, and Bae 2016; Homsy and Warner 2015; Krause 2011b; Lee and Koski 2015; Yi et al 2019) and hierarchical experimentation in China (Heilmann 2008a, 2008b; Mei and Liu 2014; Miao and Lang 2015; Miao and Li 2017; Tsai and Dean 2014), we use event history analysis to test the extent to which a city’s likelihood to apply for LCCP can be predicted by neighboring effects (horizontal diffusion and hierarchical intervention), provincial priority in sustainability and climate protection, as well as local determinants such as leadership, politics, capacity, and environmental stress.…”