Department of Management and Marketing, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong.
J Environ Manage. 2012 Nov 30;111:227-35. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2012.07.025. Epub 2012 Aug 30.
This study investigates how local government support for enforcement and internal agency obstacles explain the enforcement gap in Guangzhou, China. It was found that agency obstacles associated with insufficient resources and job ambiguity, in particular, affect enforcement officials' perceptions of enforcement difficulty. Somewhat more surprisingly, however, local government support was not found to be a significant predictor of these perceptions. In addition, this study identified four significant relationships associated with specific enforcement actions. First and second, perceptions of enforcement difficulty appear to lead to fewer inspections, but also have a weak positive effect on the frequency of fines levied. Third, poor coordination within the bureau was found to be associated with fewer violations being processed. Fourth, and contrary to expectations, local government support was found to suppress the frequency of inspections while having no significant effect on violations or fines. Overall, these findings suggest that increased local government support for the enforcement of environmental regulation in China may not necessarily lead to more rigorous enforcement, at least if enforcement rigor is measured in terms of inspections, citations and fines.
本研究调查了地方政府对执法的支持以及内部机构障碍如何解释中国广州执法差距。研究发现，与资源不足和工作不明确相关的机构障碍尤其会影响执法官员对执法难度的看法。然而，令人有些意外的是，地方政府的支持并不是这些看法的重要预测因素。此外，本研究还确定了与具体执法行动相关的四个显著关系。第一和第二，对执法难度的看法似乎会导致检查次数减少，但对罚款频率也有微弱的积极影响。第三，发现局内协调不良与处理的违规行为较少有关。第四，与预期相反，尽管地方政府的支持对违规行为或罚款没有显著影响，但却抑制了检查的频率。总的来说，这些发现表明，中国地方政府对环境法规执行的支持增加不一定会导致更严格的执法，至少如果以检查、处罚和罚款的次数来衡量执法严格程度的话是这样。
