Party families and greenhouse gas emissions: a new perspective on an old concept

Abstract

AbstractPartisan theory is not easy to apply to environmental issues. One reason for this is that party families are usually structured according to the left-right dimension. However, such a perspective ignores the fact that the concept of party families stems from a multi-dimensional historical analysis. In order to determine the relevance of the influence of party families on greenhouse gas emissions (GHGEs), we use a new data set that differentiates between ten party families. An organization theoretical analysis shows that the participation of green parties in government reduces GHGEs. Left parties have much less impact. In contrast, non-Christian center parties have a negative effect on GHGEs. Methodologically, we show that the party effect does not appear in the short term, but only takes effect after more than two years