Environmental authoritarianism at work and contested: the quasi-NGO sector in China, Vietnam, and Kazakhstan

The paper examines and compares environmental politics and state-society relations in three autocracies: China, Kazakhstan, and Vietnam. In all three cases, quasi-non-governmental organizations (a.k.a. quasi-NGOs) have (re)emerged and become relevant to environmental governance in recent decades. The central authorities in these cases have invested in creating, retaining and supporting certain quasi-NGOs for various governing purposes, including monitoring and managing bottom-up activism and social mobilization. The comparative findings of this research shed light on how authoritarian states absorb social capital and international assistance and strengthen environmental governance by (re)inventing quasi-NGOs. Quasi-NGOs, negotiating their roles between state authorities and grassroots organizations, demonstrate at the meso-level both how environmental authoritarianism operates and how it is contested. The quasi-NGO sector is a critical space to watch in the coming years, as it provides insight into the continuity and change of authoritarian rule, and the challenges brought up by environmental degradation and bottom-up activism.