Research On Citizen's Environmental Rights And Participatory Environmental Governance

Since the industrial revolution,human beings have made brilliant achievements in economic development and modern material civilization by exploiting the resources of the earth.However,what happens synchronously with the rapid development of science and technology and economy is that the earth's natural environment suffers from serious damage.The outbreak of various environmental disasters and malignant pollution events has seriously threatened the survival and health of human beings,thus inspiring pessimistic thoughts such as “the destruction of the earth” and “the survival crisis”.And countries all over the world have face the environmental problems and seek the methods of environmental governance actively.As a result,environmental authoritarianism comes into being.There are two reasons following.Firstly,it is the limitation of environmental resources and the self-interest of human beings make people realize that the effective governance of the environment can only resort to the coercive control of government authority.Secondly,technological rationalism also dominates people's thinking about governance,because the environmental problems brought by the development of science and technology can only be solved by the means of science and technology.Therefore,it is generally believed that only through the authoritative organizations of government environmental protection agencies and the technical guidance of experts can the efficiency and professionalism of environmental governance be realized.In fact,this kind of governance practice dominated by environmental authoritarianism and technical rationalism has indeed achieved a certain of results in the early stage of environmental governance,which has also won the recognition of some scholars.But the two mainstream environmental governance thoughts mentioned above only have short-term effects in practice,ignoring the awakening awareness of citizens' environmental rights in terms of concept.Now the idea of corporative or collaborative environmental governance is emerging.The corporative environmental governance based on the spirit of modern public governance reduces the state and government to a completely equal status with citizens and social organizations,so this kind of dynamic cooperative governance without structure and center not only has strong post-modern color,but also lacks practical social and political foundation in China.Based on the theory of citizen's environmental right,this thesis,by combining with China's specific institutional structure and political form,explores the modern concepts of citizen's environmental entity right,environmental procedure right,citizen's environmental private right and environmental public right,and demonstrates the theoretical rationalityand practical feasibility of participatory environmental governance mode.On this basis,this paper examines the practice attempt and dilemma of participatory environmental governance in China,and discusses the innovative way to realize participatory environmental governance according to the factors which lead to the governance dilemma.The specific research approach and analytical framework of this paper are as follows:The first chapter carries on the theory analysis and the legal explanation to the citizen environment right.With the new development of international human rights,a series of international treaties and conventions on environmental protection and governance,such as the World Environment Convention(Draft),the Aarhus Convention,and the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development,have been accepted and expressed the concept of citizens' environmental rights.In domestic laws,more than 80 countries have added the environmental rights clauses to their constitutions,thus making environmental rights recognized by legislative and judicial practices.The citizens' environmental rights not only provide the right basis for citizens' participation in environmental governance,but also establish a new path for environmental governance.The second chapter focuses on the mode of environmental governance integrated with citizens' environmental rights.In the first place,this chapter analyzes the governance idea of environmental authoritarianism and technical rationalism,which deviates from citizens' environmental rights and exposes the limitations of governance.Then by examining the logical and empirical correlation between governance participation rights and environmental rights,this chapter demonstrates that participatory environmental governance has become the preferred mode of environmental governance in China due to its theoretical rationality and practical feasibility.In the third chapter,the thesis examines the three most representative governance models in the environmental governance spectrum: the government-regulated environmental governance model,the market-oriented environmental governance model,and the cooperative environmental governance model.This chapter specifically analyzes the limitations of the government-regulated environmental governance model,the failure of the market-oriented environmental governance model,and the localization difficulty of the cooperative environmental governance model,focusing on the localization basis and China's adaptability of participatory environmental governance.It also demonstrates the practical attempts of participatory environmental governance in China from the aspects of the environmental governance policies and regulations,the civilenvironmental interest expression,and the citizen environmental supervision and evaluation.The fourth chapter analyzes the practical dilemma of the participatory environmental governance in China and its restrictive factors.This chapter argues that the problems of the participatory environmental governance include the citizen's surface participation,the lag of citizens' participation power,the supply defects of the environmental information disclosure,and the formalization and virtualization of the participation channels.The deep reasons behind these problems lie in the limitation of traditional omnipotent government management idea,the alienation of citizens' participation caused by the crisis of government trust,and the lack of rigid legal guarantee of citizens' environmental participation right.In response to the difficulties and dilemmas of the citizen environmental governance participation,the fifth chapter puts forward some innovative measures to promote the participatory environmental governance models.These measures include the followings.First,the government should transform from the environmental management to the environmental governance through the change of the trinity of“concept-function-responsibility” and the reorientation of government power.Second,reconstructing the trust relationship between the government and citizens through the transformation of “trust type-trust structure”.Thirdly,while establishing the basic legal norms of the citizens' environmental rights,we should ensure the effective operation of the system norms of citizens' environmental procedural rights and the other sub-rights.Finally,in order to promote the orderly development of the environmental social organizations,we should stimulate “the endogenous motivation” and “the external assistance”.In a word,the participatory environmental governance is not only a modern governance model that is consistent with citizens' environmental rights,but also has the social and political soil and the endogenous force applicable to China.However,because of the limitation of social development and the slow adjustment of the system,the widespread application of this governance model still requires continuous practice and exploration.