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List of contents
1. Introduction: an inconvenient truth; 2. Theory of the political regulation wave; 3. Local governance in China; 4. The case of sulfur dioxide control; 5. The case of fine particulate matter control; 6. The tradeoffs of the political regulation wave; 7. Conclusion: rethinking governance.
About the author
Shiran Victoria Shen is a Stanford-trained political scientist and environmental engineer currently based at the Hoover Institution. Her research explores the intersections of political science, public policy, environmental sciences, and engineering, with a particular interest in how local politics influence environmental governance. This is her first book.
Summary
Why has there been uneven success in reducing air pollution even in the same locality over time? This book offers an innovative theorization of how local political incentives can systematically affect bureaucratic regulation and empirically examines the control of different air pollutants in China and – to a lesser extent – in Mexico.
Additional text
'Expert warnings about that existential threat that environmental degradation and climate change pose to our way of life has become increasingly more desperate. Scientific solutions are available, but governments have made little progress in implementing them. Shiran Victoria Shen persuasively leverages expertise in the social and physical sciences to demonstrate that a critical political economy issue is that bureaucratic incentives for implementation are not appropriately matched to the specific causes of individual pollutants in authoritarian regimes, particularly China. More broadly, this book is a must read for those interested in a nuanced understanding of bureaucratic politics in authoritarian systems.' Edmund Malesky, Professor of Political Science and Director of the Duke Center for International Development, Duke University
