The political economy of China’s electric vehicle transition: eco-authoritarianism and policy durability

There is an ongoing debate amongst scholars as to whether democratic or authoritarian political systems are more effective in achieving climate policy outcomes. In this article, we follow the latter trend through the concept of eco-authoritarianism, proposing that it is the appropriate way to understand China’s approach to the green transition. Drawing on primary and secondary data on China’s electric vehicle (EV) transition, we make two contributions to the environmental politics literature. First, we go beyond the current high-level theorising of eco-authoritarianism by identifying political architecture, ambitions & priorities, and state capacity as key to applying the concept. Second, we provide an empirical account of China’s EV transition through these dimensions as core features of eco-authoritarianism, finding that they create policy durability – effective coordination of policies across the state apparatus, policy consistency over time, and market-shaping levels of policy support.