Geography Reference
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affect people's lives, the right to democratic representation of people's views on such mat-
ters, the right to an adequate standard of living, [and] freedom from arbitrary deprivation
of property” (WCD 2000a:200).
This approach draws upon fundamental human rights frameworks agreed upon by the
international community, including the UN Declaration of Human Rights (1947), the
Declaration on the Right to Development (1986), and the Rio Declaration on Environ-
ment and Development Principles (1992) (see UNEP 1992; UN General Assembly 1986,
1947). From a strictly pragmatic standpoint, the encouragement of stakeholder particip-
ation in the decision-making process increases the likelihood that dam projects are eco-
nomically viable, socially equitable, and environmentally sustainable (World Bank 2005;
WCD 2000a:202). In my conversations with Dr. Li, he was adamant that broad public
participation, grounded in well-defined rights, was a fundamental requirement of just and
sustainable-development projects. He remarked, “Only with rights can there be consulta-
tion; only with consultation can we find a way forward [
You quanli, cai you xieshang; you
xieshang, cai you banfa
].”
Despite the indisputably top-down nature of Chinese politics, the ideal of participatory
development is gaining traction in China, at least within official rhetoric. Pan Yue, the fam-
ously outspoken environmental protection vice minister, has even gone so far as to suggest
that the cadre evaluation system (
kaohe zhidu
), which has long been the primary mechan-
ism through which higher levels of government control the career trajectories of subordin-
ate officials, include one criterion that would judge how effectively local officials carry out
public participation: “First of all, we must understand clearly that public participation is the
right and interest of the people endowed by law.… Involving public participation in envir-
onmental protection should be an aspect by which to evaluate political performance” (Pan
2006).
Depending on how “participation” is structured and implemented, however, it may not
be an unmitigated good; as social scientists working in the international development arena
have pointed out, democratic principles and individual rights are not cultural universals,
which means that powerful constituent groups can often dominate the participatory process
in order to shape project outcomes in their favor (Mosse 2005; Cooke and Kothari 2001).
Ironically, Chinese officials thus far seem to have interpreted the mandate for public
participation largely as a call for “expert participation.” Professionals from academic in-
stitutions or government ministries are often called upon to provide testimony at public
hearings for large development projects, while the “old hundred names” (
laobaixing
)—the
common people—are poorly represented. Dr. Li and one of his colleagues showed me sev-
eral social media sites on the Internet where people roundly criticized the role of expert-
ise in environmental management and in governance issues more generally. One Inter-
net meme in particular has enjoyed wide circulation: people refer to experts (
zhuanjia
) by
adding a “stone” radical to the left side of the first character, a change that retains the sound
