Paper short abstract:

The paper uses a study of China and India's approaches to energy efficiency to demonstrate the relevance of TWP for understanding how departments and agencies within developing country governments seek to overcome capacity constraints and influence wider government agendas.

Paper long abstract:

The literature on thinking and working politically has largely focused on strategies used by donors in the context of specific programmes. However, similar strategies are also used within developing country governments as different departments and agencies seek to influence wider government agendas. This paper draws on research conducted for the Developmental Leadership Program on climate change mitigation in China and India to explore the strategies government agencies use to overcome challenges of limited capacity and competing priorities. It highlights that agencies in both countries have sought to overcome these challenges by bundling climate change mitigation together with other more immediate priorities. These bundling strategies have been used both to broaden the appeal of climate change mitigation measures and to develop a coalition with a common interest in achieving climate change mitigation objectives. The paper argues that a greater focus on how such strategies of thinking and working politically are used by developing country governments has the potential to enrich our understanding of what it means to think and work politically by making it less donor-centric.

This paper draws on research previously published as Harrison and Kostka (2012): 'Manoeuvres for a Low Carbon State: The Local Politics of Climate Change in China and India'.

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