The Protection Of Citizens' Environmental Rights And Interests:A Research Based On The Perspective Of Collaborative Governance

Embedded in the New Era of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics,the ever-changing needs regarding how to further establish a modern environmental governance system in which multiple subjects cooperate and co-govern,to coordinate the conflicts of environmental interests,and to meet the people's growing demands for environmental rights and interests have become the main task of comprehensively deepening reform of the party and the state.The report of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China(CPC)pointed out that the people's rights to be informed,to participate,to express,and to supervise must be guaranteed,which should be propped up by establishing an environmental governing system which features the joint participation among governmental leadership,proactive entrepreneurship,social organizations and the public.Under the guidance of Xi Jinping's thoughts on ecological civilization of socialism with Chinese characteristics for a new era,it is of great theoretical and practical significance to explore the protection of citizens'environmental rights and interests from the perspective of "multi-agent collaborative governance".Meanwhile,it also contributes to broadening the theoretical understanding of public environmental consciousness and concerns,to advancing the research on environmental rights,equity and justice,to promoting the effective governance of local environmental mass incidents,and to facilitating the modernization of environmental governance system and governing capacity.This PhD thesis aims to employ different methods,such as literature research,social investigation,system analysis and structural function inquiry.The theoretical bases are environmental justice thoughts of Carl Marx and Friedrich Engels,ecological civilization of socialism with Chinese characteristics,deliberative democracy,and cooperative governance.Through the analysis of the current situation of the protection of citizens'environmental rights and interests in China,and the mechanism of such protection by coordinated governance,the system of collaborative governance of citizens' environmental rights and interests will be constructed,and the implementation path of multiple subjects' collaborative protection of environmental justice will also be proposed.The main contents are as follows:Firstly,by means of textual analysis,this research puts forward that Marx and Engels'environmental thoughts regard the environmental justice among humans,nature and society as the precondition and value aim for the realization of environmental rights and interests.The thoughts of ecological civilization of socialism with Chinese characteristics regard the realization and protection of people's environmental rights and interests as an important goal,essential requirement and practical direction of development.In particular,Xi Jinping's proposition has expounded the theoretical meaning and practical direction of environmental justice,demonstrating China's wisdom and solutions to the issue of environmental justice.Theories like deliberative democracy and collaborative governance are based on the orientation of public interest maximization,which advocate a widely multiple subject participation in decision-making,democratic consultation and cooperation.These theoretical initiatives are also in accordance with the practical needs of coordinated governance of citizens' environmental rights and interests,and provide them with important practical guidance and theoretical support.Secondly,via questionnaire and depth interview on the present situation of civil environmental rights,consciousness and interest conflicts,I will analyze the environmental concerns,dynamic formation,specific legal actions,intersubjective confrontation behavior and related factors affecting these activities.Furthermore,I aim to summarize the measures of coordinated governance of Chinese citizens'environmental rights and interests,in terms of their pattern and system,according to the principle of "joint contribution,participatory governance and shared benefits".At last,I will argue that at present,the protection of citizens' environmental rights and interests is confronted with certain problems,such as intertwining of politics and economy,fragmentation of environmental governance system,unbalanced supply of environmental protection system,insufficient effectiveness of public environmental participation,and the weakening of social capital,then putting forward the necessity and orientation of civil collaborative governance which rightfully targets environment rights and interests.Thirdly,based on the goal requirement of constructing a collaborative governance system which features "party committee leadership,governmental management,enterprise contribution,social organization and public participation",this research analyzes the subject composition,role orientation and game relationship in guaranteeing citizens' environmental rights and interests.The SCIF collaborative governance model is used to reveal the main influencing factors of collaborative governance of citizens' environmental rights and interests,including environmental power and resource allocation,past environmental conflicts/governance/cooperation,the degree of interdependence of environmental interests,government leadership,etc.It further points out the construction of network interaction,interest coordination,policy coordination,information sharing and other operating mechanisms,based on various interactive processes of collaborative governance(e.g.goal orientation,consensus formation,commitment implementation and effect evaluation),so as to explore the internal mechanism of multiple subjects' collaborative protection of public environmental benefits.Finally,according to the theoretical analysis and empirical research,the conclusion part puts forward to establishing and improving the formal systems of environmental governance(e.g.sharing of environmental information and responsibilities,and ecological compensation),as well as the informal institutions(ecological ethics and social trust),on the basis of cultivating the consciousness of "living community",the new concept of development and the sense of a shared community namely "joint contribution,participatory governance and shared benefits".Last but definitely not least,I will provide some niche-targeting ideas and suggestions for how to galvanize the collaborative governance of public environmental rights and interests.These initiatives include:to open up channels for citizens to express their environmental rights and interests and broaden approaches for them to participate in environmental governance;to establish a sincere and upright model of politics-business interaction,and to improve the incentive&restraint mechanism integrated with these two stakeholders for environmental co-governance;to construct the operation mechanism of environmental conflicts,namely "prevention in advance,coordination in action and accountability afterwards".