Who is greener? Climate action and political regimes: trade-offs for national and international actors

Abstract

Climate change constitutes a major concern for all political regimes. The question, however, is whether different regime types show different degrees of disposition to reduce carbon emissions. Studies comparing the performance between democracies and autocracies provide us with some fundamental findings but most do not take into consideration the variety of regimes that are neither full democracies nor full autocracies. The perspective of this inquiry is one of a scholar in democracy studies aiming mainly to better understand possible trade-offs of different regime types in the context of climate change. The analysis addresses, first, the national level and discusses possible trade-offs and the difficult choices faced by democracies, autocracies, young democracies and democratizing countries in dealing with climate change. Secondly, the implications for the international level are considered, especially for democracy promoters and their policy options concerning emerging democracies and countries in transition that perform poorly in respect to climate action.