Remaking water regime : the process of institutional change in China

Abstract

This dissertation is a study that analyzes local water governance restructuring in China from the perspective of institutional change. By focusing on local sustainability development in China and the complexity of the institutional change process, this dissertation opens the black box of institutional change, with special attention to agencies and environmental factors. In particular, it seeks to tackle the following empirical questions: Why do local governments adopt water governance restructuring in China? What kind of outcomes have they achieved? How has the change process evolved with time? And what contributes to the dynamics and complexities of the institutional change process?

Recent water governance restructuring in China represents a bold attempt to make institutional change to achieve a more efficient governance system. China has traditionally adopted a fragmented water governance structure, in which different agencies take responsibility for different water functions. For example, as the dominant participant in the traditional water governance system, the Water Conservancy Bureau is responsible for water conservancy construction projects; meanwhile, the Environmental Protection Bureau oversees water pollution problems. Recognizing functional fragmentation challenges and collective action dilemmas, an increasing number of Chinese municipalities have designed their own Water Affairs Bureau, a unified governance authority that integrates multiple traditional water-related governance authorities. This restructuring of the local water governance system provides an opportunity to explore how institutions change and how the change evolves.

In order to investigate the full cycle, from the cause to the process to the outcome of water governance restructuring, this dissertation applies mixed methods. Chapter 3 and Chapter 4 collect empirical data from Chinese statistical yearbooks and official sources such as government websites. The findings of panel regression of those data suggest that the adoption of water governance restructuring resembles an inter-agency game in the bargaining process. An integrative structure of governance may facilitate better water governance outcomes. Chapter 5 draws on extensive fieldwork in eastern China from 2018 to 2019 and proposes a typology of different forms of institutional change in the evolutionary process. How cities implement such change and how the change evolves over time depend on the source of motivation for the change and available resources.

Overall, this study presents a complex picture of institutional change with the example of Chinese water governance reform. This dissertation finds that there are two factors that might contribute to the process of institutional evolution: agency interests and resource sufficiency. The interests of agencies greatly influence the decision to adopt reform, and the conflicting interests between agencies aggravate the tension in the process of institutional change.

Meanwhile, the level of resource sufficiency determines the capacity of agencies to implement such change and the extent to which relevant guidelines are followed. This dissertation, therefore, can help us better understand the full process of institutional change and its relevant variables.