TY - JOUR A1 - Eaton, Sarah A1 - Kostka, Genia T1 - Authoritarian environmentalism undermined? Local leaders' time horizons and environmental policy implementation in China JF - The China Quarterly N2 - China's national leaders see restructuring and diversification away from resource-based, energy intensive industries as central goals in the coming years. On the basis of extensive fieldwork in China between 2010 and 2012, we suggest that the high turnover of leading cadres at the local level may hinder state-led greening growth initiatives. Frequent cadre turnover is intended primarily to keep local Party secretaries and mayors on the move in order to promote the implementation of central directives. While rotation does seem to aid implementation by reducing coordination problems, there are also significant downsides to local leaders changing office every three to four years. Officials with short time horizons are likely to choose the path of least resistance in selecting quick, low-quality approaches to the implementation of environmental policies. We conclude that the perverse effects of local officials’ short time horizons give reason to doubt the more optimistic claims about the advantages of China's model of environmental authoritarianism. KW - Authoritarian environmentalism KW - Cadre rotation KW - Environmental policy implementation KW - China KW - Leadership KW - Time horizons Y1 - 2014 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b1570-opus4-10423 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1017/S0305741014000356 SN - 0305-7410 VL - 218 SP - 359 EP - 380 PB - Cambridge Univ. Press CY - Cambridge ER -