Parties and their environmental problem perceptions\u2014Towards a\xa0more fundamental understanding of party positions in environmental politics

Jan Pollex,Lars E. Berker

doi:10.1007/s12286-022-00515-x

Abstract

Research on party differences in environmental policy, so far, has developed ambiguous results. While we, generally, assume parties to make a difference in policy-making, some scholars point to party indifferences in environmental issues. Thus, whether and how parties take different positions on the issue and whether their positions impact environmental policy output and outcome is still up for debate. To further our knowledge of party positions in this area, we propose to include parties’ perceptions of environmental problems when analysing their general stances. Based on pertinent policy analysis literature, we differentiate seven dimensions of environmental problems and develop an approach that we apply to party manifestos. By analysing the platforms of 20 parties from three European countries, we illustrate its potential contributions to established measurements based on CHES and CMP data. The analysis indicates that parties differ considerably concerning their problem perception ranging from simple to holistic views on environmental policy. Importantly, we can highlight some differences between parties otherwise omitted in existing measurements. Overall, our inquiry shows that some parties, e.g., Green parties, coherently show a holistic problem perception while others, e.g., Liberals, differ considerably, casting doubt on the assumption of clear-cut party family positions.

Highlights

Environmental policy has moved steadily to the fore of international and national policy agendas
It is grounded in the premises posited by policy analysis literature that environmental policy is inherently complex in its problem structure and that this problem structure determines actors’ positions central to the policy processes
Understanding parties to be central in this regard, we used descriptions of environmental policy’s multi-faceted nature to analyse party manifestos and develop the Index of Environmental Problem Perception

Summary

Introduction

Environmental policy has moved steadily to the fore of international and national policy agendas. We propose to consider parties’ reflections on environmental problems and their complex nature as an approach to trace a more fundamental understanding of party positions To this end, this article should be understood as a starting point and provide a way for scholars to incorporate parties’ different perspectives on environmental problems. Existing approaches to grasp parties’ environmental positions generally reveal three central shortcomings They either address contention on environmental policy unidimensional reducing it to the conflict between ecology and economy and thereby discounting the complexity of environmental issues (Bakker et al 2020). 114; cf Böcher and Töller 2012), research often tackles only one aspect of this broad field and thereby lacks comparability across studies To address these shortcomings, we propose to go beyond existing approaches to party differences and focus on problem structure as a fine-grained concept of environmental policy, enabling a meta-view on parties’ environmental positions. The last section discusses our approach and critically reflects on its contribution

Analysing party positions in environmental politics

Dimensions of environmental problem structure4

Research design and methods

Parties’ perception of environmental problems

Findings

Discussion & conclusion