PERFORMANCE AND PERFORMANCE

This chapter reflects the double-meaning of the word performance, noting how separation of appearance and substance follows a long tradition among Enlightenment thinkers. It explores how performative governance relates to the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) ongoing battle against bureaucratic formalism and the potential for a collapsing together of the bureaucratic and the political in our present information age. It also reviews the intellectual separation of what is commonly called “government performance” from the government's theatrical representation of its performance. The chapter uses “performative governance” to describe the theatrical representation of good governance, especially when substantive performance is wanting. It shows how environmental bureaucracy engaged in performative governance to appease its scrutinizing citizen audience when it lacked the ability to fulfil its function of improving environmental outcomes.