Advocating Environmental Interests in China

This article analyzes two cases of environmental advocacy initiatives in China: institutionalizing environmental information transparency and sanctioning environmental violations. Both initiatives were aimed at achieving policy change at a national or regional level. Although the study shows evidence of advocacy coalitions and pressure groups in the policy process, neither the coalitions nor the groups had a set of core beliefs that enabled them to persist over time. Because they were restricted to limited advocacy on particular concerns, they proved to be ephemeral and disappeared after the issues had been addressed. The cases conform to the pattern of decision making in an authoritarian regime where policy initiatives tend to emanate from the government rather than from the public