‘Is Green the New King? An Analysis of Environmental Authoritarianism and Climate Change Governance’

In my paper ‘Is Green the New King? An analysis of Environmental Authoritarianism and Climate Change Governance’, I seek to answer the following question: How does forms of governance impact the effectiveness of domestic climate change policy? I hypothesize that democracies have better domestic environmental public policy performances due to the influence of environmentally-minded voters and that the lack of political accountability and citizen input in China’s ‘environmental authoritarian’ regime has reduced their dwesmtic policies’ effectiveness. After conducting a literature review that explores democratic characteristics, environmental authoritarianism, and environmental public good provisions, I conduct a statical analysis on the relationship between regime type and renewable energy use. I find mixed results that go against my first hypothesis. Using China as a case study for environmental authoritarianism and environmental injustice instances in rural China and Tibet, I find support for my second hypothesis. I conclude that while my first hypothesis faced opposing statistical results, my case study showed that environmental authoritarianism’s policy outcome and implementation weaknesses are significant enough to outweigh the bureaucratic strengths.