The biosphere and civilisation are facing existential and other major threats: climate change, biodiversity loss, nuclear war, social inequality/injustice, loss of human rights, and autocracy. These threats are driven by politically powerful vested interests supported by an economic system based on the exploitation of the environment and most people for the benefit of a wealthy minority. This article proposes a strategy to resist and weaken state capture, i.e., the influence of the vested interests driving the principal threats, while simultaneously facilitating the transition to a sustainable society. Despite the achievements of diverse community-based non-government organisations (CNGOs) campaigning on specific issues, scientists are now warning of the potential collapse of civilisation. As the threats are linked together in several ways, I propose a strategy to address them together to yield multiple benefits, supplementing campaigns on individual issues. A broad social movement—comprising an alliance between CNGOs devoted to the environment, social justice, human rights, and peace—could exert sufficient political power to expose and defeat the methods of state capture. Simultaneously, the movement could gain widespread community support by campaigning for a well-being economy, including universal basic services and a job guarantee, thus facilitating the transition to an ecologically sustainable, more socially just, and more peaceful civilisation.
Mobile governance, a commonly used governance approach in China, has always been controversial. Behind the persistence of mobile governance lies the underlying governance logic. This paper takes the implementation of the “coal-to-gas” policy in rural areas of Handan as a case study to analyze the path-dependent logic inherent in mobile governance. The paper argues that mobile governance’s selection path embodies path dependency characteristics, including three paths: conformist path dependency, policy-based path dependency, and demand-based path dependency. Mobile governance can be regulated through three paths: formulating a comprehensive list of rights and responsibilities for grassroots governance, the provincial government enacting relevant regulations to standardize the grassroots governance process, and vigorously developing e-government and digital government technologies to enhance the rule of law and standardization in grassroots governance.
