How Policy Shapes Politics: Uneven Environmental Policy Implementation in China

The literature on policy implementation has primarily focused on regime type, institutional capacity, and leadership will in explaining policy success, while giving less attention to the details of policy design. This article argues that, when explaining unevenness in policy implementation, the devil is in the details. It turns to four Chinese environmental policies: Pollution Penalty, Cap-and-Trade, Coal-to-Gas, and Environmental Protection Tax. Despite involving similar stakeholders and sharing the same goal of pollution control, the outcomes of these policies vary enormously: over-implementation of Coal-to-Gas, sporadic implementation of Pollution Penalty, symbolic implementation of Cap-and-Trade, and effective implementation of Environmental Protection Tax. Uneven implementation is best explained by the varying costs associated with the ‘start-up’ and ‘maintenance’ of these policies. This study contributes to the literature on developmental states and institutional change by calling attention to the importance of policy design for explaining otherwise puzzling variation in policy implementation.