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

Journal

Environmental Politics

Authors

James Jackson and Mathias Larsen*

*The starred authors are contributors from the Grantham Research Institute

This article contributes to the ongoing debate amongst scholars as to whether democratic or authoritarian political systems are more effective in achieving climate policy outcomes. The authors explore the concept of eco-authoritarianism as a way of understanding China’s approach to the green transition. Drawing on primary and secondary data on China’s electric vehicle (EV) transition, the authors make two contributions to the environmental politics literature. First, they go beyond the current high-level theorising of eco-authoritarianism by identifying political architecture, ambitions and priorities, and state capacity as key to applying the concept. Second, the authors 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.

DOI: 10.1080/09644016.2026.2728362