UNRAVELLING CHINA'S ENVIRONMENTAL TRANSFORMATION: AN ANALYTICAL ECLECTIC EXPLANATION OF CLIMATE GOVERNANCE UNDER HYPER-MANUFACTURING
Keywords:
Analytical Eclecticism; Climate Change; China’s Environmental Governance; Process Tracing; Ecological Civilization.Abstract
How can environmental stability go hand-in-hand with intense and persistent industrialization in the world’s top manufacturing state? The traditional discourse on environmental stability and rapid industrialization is confined to a dissonant relationship between the two variables. Encompassing an inverse relationship, it indicates that environmental preservation acts as a hindrance in the process of industrial development. Despite many developing states that a highly dependent on industrialization, runs parallel to the conventional argument on environment. China, however, does not fit into the conventional box by portraying an image transcending the traditional argument. China has pursued intense industrialization, high manufacturing activities, but has also Managed to mitigate the severe environmental consequences through policy reorientation and institutional shifts resulting in decline of urban smog through the promotion of green technology and integration of environmental objectives in national strategy. A plethora of literature regarding this case is elucidated solely through a single isolated perspective (domestic institutions, international level commitments, and environmental norms). Projecting light on a single dimension in isolation, to illustrate the case, fails to encompass the interaction between these mechanisms that play a pivotal role in bringing about this manifestation. This study addresses this explanatory limitation by adopting analytically eclectic framework dealing with constructivism, neo-liberal institutionalism and historical institutional. Further through explaining outcome process tracing allows to identify and analyse the links between political legitimacy, environmental instability and institutional shifts during 2012 to 2024. Gathering evidence through environmental datasets and official policy documents indicates how the three mechanisms overlap to bring about policy outcomes reflecting environmental preservence. Despite positive results, limitations of regional disparity prevail, as maritime pollution governance remains a challenge. The study highlights the complexity of environmental shifts and the role of different intersecting mechanism contributing in it manifestation, making it inefficient to explain through isolated mechanisms.
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
