Institutional dynamics and power in the local state: Shanghai’s climate-policy processes

This thesis explores how local governments operate in the Chinese polity. What factors influence their choices and actions in the policy processes? This is examined through a case study of Shanghai’s climate and energy policy processes, within an analytical framework of institutional dynamics and expressions of power. The data consist of a body of Chinese language documents, supplemented by 41 interviews conducted during field stays over 9 months between 2015 and 2017. A key finding concerns the central–local relationship. Power in the Chinese context is often conceptualized as the central state’s power over subnational governments and society, or with accounts of local government resistance towards the higher authorities viewed as their agency. In this thesis, in addition to power over others and using agency to stand up for oneself, a third expression of power, power with, is introduced. Power with occurs when two or more actors come together and seek to accomplish a common goal, as was sometimes the case in Shanghai’s climate-change policy processes. Shanghai’s climate and energy policy actions were shaped by the institutional dynamics identified in the case study: state signalling, regional competition, experimentation, and informal contact. This thesis contributes new insights on local policy processes, in particular concerning energy, and climate mitigation. Each of the three articles that comprise this thesis covers different aspects of the policy processes, and interactions with central government and local businesses. Building on studies of how institutional dynamics have shaped Chinese politics, the theoretical contribution here concerns how power is applied, using a framework that allows for inclusion of various aspects of power that a local government may experience and utilize, often simultaneously.