Statecraft as Stagecraft

This chapter analyzes performative governance in China's environmental state and other selected issue areas, reviewing the sources, properties, and outcomes of performative governance. It addresses the question of what makes state behavior performative as opposed to substantive and when does it improve the state's image or falls flat. Before assessing the conditions of performative governance and its reception by the public, the chapter first assesses the definition of performative governance. It emphasizes that performative governance refers to the state's symbolic performance of “good governance.” It also provides a background on the empirical investigations into the evolution of China's environmental state over time and the causes and effects of performative governance.