Author: Xun Lili, Bao Zhiming

Source: Social Sciences in China, No.1, February 2008

Abstract: Our fieldwork at S Banner in Inner Mongolia reveals that the implementation of the ecological migration policy is a social process involving joint participation of multiple social agents including the central government, local governments, market elites, and farmers and herders. Behind these complex interactions is a network of power and interest constituted by government power, market power and the local people. Local governments function as a node joining different linkages in top-down ecological governance. Their dual role as ＂agent-managers of political power＂ and ＂profit-seeking managers of political power＂ leads to great uncertainty in the realization of environmental protection goals.

Keywords: local government, agent-managers of political power, profit-seeking managers of political power, dual role

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