Campaign‐Style Enforcement and Regulatory Compliance

TLDR

Campaign‑style enforcement is examined for its role in recoupling environmental regulatory compliance, with the article discussing its strengths and limitations. The authors aim to develop a conceptual model of campaign‑style enforcement that uses resource mobilization and power redistribution to solve decoupling problems in regulatory compliance. The model proposes a two‑pathway recoupling mechanism, supported by an empirical study of China’s 11th Five‑Year Plan energy conservation and emission‑reduction policy. Campaign‑style enforcement improves compliance by resolving the efficiency‑legitimacy conflict through policy incentives and a reorganized hierarchy of political authority.

Abstract

Abstract This article examines the recoupling mechanism of campaign‐style enforcement and its effects on environmental regulatory compliance. Drawing on the policy implementation literature and institutional theory, the authors develop a conceptual model of campaign‐style enforcement in which both resource mobilization and power redistribution are theorized to address decoupling problems in regulatory compliance. The two‐pathway recoupling mechanism is evidenced by an empirical investigation of the implementation of China's energy conservation and emission reduction policy as part of that country's 11th Five‐Year Plan. Findings suggest that campaign‐style enforcement can effectively improve regulatory compliance when it addresses the efficiency/legitimacy conflict by providing policy incentives and reorganizing a clear hierarchy of political authority. The article concludes with a discussion of the strengths and limitations of campaign‐style enforcement.