How coalitions of multiple actors advance policy in China: ecological agriculture at Danjiangkou

Abstract

ABSTRACT Ecological agriculture (EA) is commonly regarded as a top-down agricultural reform plan in China. However, the policy process is more complicated than that. Taking Xichuan, Henan province, the water source area for the Middle Route of South–North-Water-Transfer (MR-SNWT) project, as a case study, this paper tracks the participation of various agencies and their interactions with Xichuan’s government, to reveal how EA has been integrated into local rural development. As agents were assembled to promote Xichuan’s development, EA in Xichuan was considered both as a goal in itself and as a tactic employed to meet the multiple goals of various participants: water protection, poverty alleviation, follow-up support for people who lost their land to the reservoir and changing customer food preferences. With the dominant initiative from a strong central state, the local government and other stakeholders integrated their investments and concerns into policy process, seeking to maximise their own interests; however, they sometimes had to compromise on some standards. This study expands our understanding of ‘fragmented authoritarianism’ by illustrating the overlap and interaction of different actors in advancing similar policies even if they have varied and sometimes competing interests, and it encourages the study of policy processes over space that incorporate multi-actors.