Seeing the People’s Republic of China through the Eyes of Montesquieu: Why Sino-European Collaboration on Eco City Development Suffers from European Misinterpretations of “Good Governance”
China faces a number of impressive challenges in dealing with climate change: rising energy use, growing emission levels of greenhouse gases, dangerous levels of air pollution over cities and low resilience against flood and drought. Sustainable urbanization has been adopted as a keyword in handling...
Main Authors: | , , |
---|---|
Format: | Article |
Language: | English |
Published: |
MDPI AG
2017-02-01
|
Series: | Sustainability |
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/9/2/151 |
id |
doaj-cf99fa6c82824507a3463490700f1dda |
---|---|
record_format |
Article |
spelling |
doaj-cf99fa6c82824507a3463490700f1dda2020-11-25T00:53:01ZengMDPI AGSustainability2071-10502017-02-019215110.3390/su9020151su9020151Seeing the People’s Republic of China through the Eyes of Montesquieu: Why Sino-European Collaboration on Eco City Development Suffers from European Misinterpretations of “Good Governance”Martin de Jong0Helen Stout1Li Sun2Faculty of Technology, Policy & Management, Delft University of Technology, Mekelweg 2, 2628 CD Delft, The NetherlandsErasmus School of Law, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Burgemeester Oudlaan 50, 3062 PA Rotterdam, The NetherlandsSchool of Sociology and Social Policy, University of Leeds, Leeds LS29JT, UKChina faces a number of impressive challenges in dealing with climate change: rising energy use, growing emission levels of greenhouse gases, dangerous levels of air pollution over cities and low resilience against flood and drought. Sustainable urbanization has been adopted as a keyword in handling these challenges. The Chinese central government has undertaken a variety of measures, including the launch of large Sino-European programs to learn from ‘developed nations’. In the wake of these partnerships, a great variety of cross-national and cross-city agreements were signed. Sino-European cooperation does not often run as smoothly as initially hoped because of diverging interests, cultural misunderstandings and practical limitations. In the background, a mismatch in normative conceptions Chinese and European participants have of ‘good governance’ plays a role. In this contribution, insights taken from Montesquieu’s ‘The Spirit of Laws’ regarding checks and balances and trias politica (updated to ‘sextas politica’ for the 21st century) are used to comprehend how the exertion of power is distributed and expected to be distributed differently in Chinese than in European administrative traditions. The article will end with conclusions on how European misconceptions of Chinese governance complicate Sino-European collaboration in sustainable urbanization policies.http://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/9/2/151sustainable urbanizationSino-European collaborationMontesquieuchecks and balancessextas politica |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Martin de Jong Helen Stout Li Sun |
spellingShingle |
Martin de Jong Helen Stout Li Sun Seeing the People’s Republic of China through the Eyes of Montesquieu: Why Sino-European Collaboration on Eco City Development Suffers from European Misinterpretations of “Good Governance” Sustainability sustainable urbanization Sino-European collaboration Montesquieu checks and balances sextas politica |
author_facet |
Martin de Jong Helen Stout Li Sun |
author_sort |
Martin de Jong |
title |
Seeing the People’s Republic of China through the Eyes of Montesquieu: Why Sino-European Collaboration on Eco City Development Suffers from European Misinterpretations of “Good Governance” |
title_short |
Seeing the People’s Republic of China through the Eyes of Montesquieu: Why Sino-European Collaboration on Eco City Development Suffers from European Misinterpretations of “Good Governance” |
title_full |
Seeing the People’s Republic of China through the Eyes of Montesquieu: Why Sino-European Collaboration on Eco City Development Suffers from European Misinterpretations of “Good Governance” |
title_fullStr |
Seeing the People’s Republic of China through the Eyes of Montesquieu: Why Sino-European Collaboration on Eco City Development Suffers from European Misinterpretations of “Good Governance” |
title_full_unstemmed |
Seeing the People’s Republic of China through the Eyes of Montesquieu: Why Sino-European Collaboration on Eco City Development Suffers from European Misinterpretations of “Good Governance” |
title_sort |
seeing the people’s republic of china through the eyes of montesquieu: why sino-european collaboration on eco city development suffers from european misinterpretations of “good governance” |
publisher |
MDPI AG |
series |
Sustainability |
issn |
2071-1050 |
publishDate |
2017-02-01 |
description |
China faces a number of impressive challenges in dealing with climate change: rising energy use, growing emission levels of greenhouse gases, dangerous levels of air pollution over cities and low resilience against flood and drought. Sustainable urbanization has been adopted as a keyword in handling these challenges. The Chinese central government has undertaken a variety of measures, including the launch of large Sino-European programs to learn from ‘developed nations’. In the wake of these partnerships, a great variety of cross-national and cross-city agreements were signed. Sino-European cooperation does not often run as smoothly as initially hoped because of diverging interests, cultural misunderstandings and practical limitations. In the background, a mismatch in normative conceptions Chinese and European participants have of ‘good governance’ plays a role. In this contribution, insights taken from Montesquieu’s ‘The Spirit of Laws’ regarding checks and balances and trias politica (updated to ‘sextas politica’ for the 21st century) are used to comprehend how the exertion of power is distributed and expected to be distributed differently in Chinese than in European administrative traditions. The article will end with conclusions on how European misconceptions of Chinese governance complicate Sino-European collaboration in sustainable urbanization policies. |
topic |
sustainable urbanization Sino-European collaboration Montesquieu checks and balances sextas politica |
url |
http://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/9/2/151 |
work_keys_str_mv |
AT martindejong seeingthepeoplesrepublicofchinathroughtheeyesofmontesquieuwhysinoeuropeancollaborationonecocitydevelopmentsuffersfromeuropeanmisinterpretationsofgoodgovernance AT helenstout seeingthepeoplesrepublicofchinathroughtheeyesofmontesquieuwhysinoeuropeancollaborationonecocitydevelopmentsuffersfromeuropeanmisinterpretationsofgoodgovernance AT lisun seeingthepeoplesrepublicofchinathroughtheeyesofmontesquieuwhysinoeuropeancollaborationonecocitydevelopmentsuffersfromeuropeanmisinterpretationsofgoodgovernance |
_version_ |
1725239599535489024 |