Towards a Green State: A Comparative Study on OECD Countries through Fuzzy-Set Analysis

Taewook Huh,Jiyoung Kim,Yunyoung Kim

doi:10.3390/su10093181

Abstract

This study aims to develop an empirical measurement framework of the green state and compare twenty-four OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) countries’ cases through the fuzzy-set multiple conjunctural analysis and the ideal type analysis. Based on the analysis model of the outcome set (Sustainable Development Goal Index) and the causal sets of seven variables on the four green state categories (‘ecological authoritarian state’, ‘ecological modern state’, ‘ecological democracy state’, and ‘ecological welfare state’), this study reveals the following results. Among OECD member countries, if ones have high environmental tax, high environmental innovation (patent), high economic development and democracy, high levels of environmental governance and social expenditure, or have high economic development and democracy, and high levels of environmental governance and environmental health, they can be seen to have reached a high level of green state (consistency: 0.980, total coverage: 0.675). Also, the thirteen ideal types of green state of twenty-four OECD countries were derived. Norway (fuzzy-set membership score of 0.515) is a country of Type 1, with a characteristic of ‘strong green state’ having all high features of the four green state categories. Greece (membership score, 0.692) and Ireland (0.577) belong to Type 13, characterized by ‘weak green state’ with all four low features. As a result, the green state types of the twenty-four OECD countries can be assorted into five levels: ‘Strong Green State’, ‘Quasi-Strong Green State’, ‘Quasi-Green State’, ‘Quasi-Weak Green State’, and ‘Weak Green State’.

Highlights

Through ecological problems, we need to recognize the critical issues of the institutions and standards of contemporary society—and find more fundamental and active implementation efforts in order to call actions ‘green’
In ‘democracy’, green refers to consideration of the politically disadvantaged [1,2]; in ‘welfarism’ it refers to the socially and economically disadvantaged [3,4,5,6]; and in ‘ecology’, green includes all issues regarding the ecologically disadvantaged and aims to completely restructure political, social and economic institutions [7,8,9,10]
According to the works of Dryzek, et al [20], a green state strives to achieve an ecologically sustainable society by aiming for political, economic, and institutional change as a whole, based on ecological rationality. Another scholar who has produced comprehensive research on the green state, Eckersley [5] explains that the green state is defined as “a democracy where the ideology of regulation and the democratic procedure is led by ecological democracy, rather than liberal democracy”, and emphasizes the ecologically responsible statehood

Summary

Introduction

We need to recognize the critical issues of the institutions and standards of contemporary society—and find more fundamental and active implementation efforts in order to call actions ‘green’. According to the works of Dryzek, et al [20], a green state strives to achieve an ecologically sustainable society by aiming for political, economic, and institutional change as a whole, based on ecological rationality. Another scholar who has produced comprehensive research on the green state, Eckersley [5] explains that the green state is defined as “a democracy where the ideology of regulation and the democratic procedure is led by ecological democracy, rather than liberal democracy”, and emphasizes the ecologically responsible statehood. The green state differentiates itself in the core logic and role of the state’s main responsibilities with previous theories such as the industrial state, developmental state, welfare state, even the competition state or entrepreneurial state, both which are valued in the era of economic globalization [21,22]

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion