From Booms to Bans

IF 1.3 Q3 DEVELOPMENT STUDIES Sociology of Development Pub Date : 2023-01-01 DOI:10.1525/sod.2023.9.2.131
Juliet Lu, Hilary H. Smith
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Abstract

In this paper, we examine the extensive use of bans (temporary prohibitions or moratoriums) on resource exploitation activities by the government of Laos as an authoritarian environmental governance tool. We focus on bans enacted recently in three sectors: on the granting of land concessions in 2012, on the expansion of banana plantations in 2014, and on logging exports in 2016. Bans have long been used in Laos, particularly in the forestry sector, despite their considerable political risk and economic costs, the way they contradict state actors’ promotion of these same activities as drivers of development, and their past ineffectiveness. Most cases in the environmental authoritarian literature explore authoritarian states with a strong capacity to employ top-down governance tools. We argue, in contrast, that the Lao government’s repeated use of bans instead of other effective governing tools, such as more incremental, conditional, or incentive-based policies, reflects not strong state capacity but rather the limits to its implementing and enforcement capacity. The bans examined emerge from central–local divides, unregulated village land leasing, and failures to extract state revenues, and we interpret them as central-state efforts to consolidate and assert a more centralized, command-and-control authority over the country’s land and resources.
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从繁荣到萧条
在本文中,我们研究了老挝政府对资源开采活动广泛使用禁令(临时禁止或暂停)作为威权环境治理工具。我们关注的是最近在三个领域颁布的禁令:2012年的土地特许,2014年的香蕉种植园扩张,以及2016年的伐木出口。老挝长期以来一直在使用禁令,特别是在林业部门,尽管它们具有相当大的政治风险和经济成本,它们与国家行为体推动这些活动作为发展动力的方式相矛盾,而且它们过去无效。环境威权主义文献中的大多数案例都探讨了威权国家采用自上而下的治理工具的强大能力。相比之下,我们认为,老挝政府反复使用禁令而不是其他有效的治理工具,如更多的增量、有条件或基于激励的政策,反映的不是强大的国家能力,而是其实施和执行能力的限制。这些禁令源于中央与地方的分歧、不受监管的乡村土地租赁以及未能提取国家收入,我们将其解释为中央政府巩固和维护对国家土地和资源的更集中、指挥和控制权威的努力。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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来源期刊
Sociology of Development
Sociology of Development Social Sciences-Development
CiteScore
1.90
自引率
8.30%
发文量
14
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