Party competition on climate policy: The roles of interest groups, ideology and challenger parties in the UK and Ireland

Abstract

This study shows how interest group–party relations, parties’ cross-cutting policy preferences, and competition with challenger parties shape the structure of issue competition on climate policy. It uses the ‘most similar’ cases of the UK and Ireland to show how differences in party systems influence the structure of issue competition. The study takes up the challenge of integrating salience and position in the conceptualisation of climate policy preferences. Empirically, it provides new evidence on factors influencing climate policy preferences and the party politics of climate change, focusing on interest groups, party ideology, and challenger parties. Further, it identifies similarities between the general literature on interest group influence on party preferences and the literature on interest groups in climate politics, and seeks to make connections between them.

The electoral importance and evolution of climate‐related energy policy: evidence from Switzerland

“…This view stems from the assumption that voters are generally in favor of environmental protection or would at least not support any policy that would harm the environment. Several studies have challenged the view that the environment or climate change can be regarded as a genuine valence issue (Båtstrand, 2014; Carter et al, 2018; Farstad, 2018; Carter & Little, 2021; Schaffer & Lüth, 2021). Evidence from outside Europe supports this finding.…”

“…In Europe, populist and right‐wing parties are increasingly taking climate‐skeptical views (Lockwood, 2018; Schaller & Carius, 2019). With our research we want to contribute to this empirical debate in the spirit of Carter and Little (2021: 3) who note that “the structure of issue competition on climate politics should be investigated rather than assumed, and that it can differ between contexts and climate policy issues”. Finally, we argue that climate change and energy issues have further increased the polarization of the Swiss Party system (Kriesi, 2015).…”

Closing the Implementation Gap: Obstacles in Reaching Net-Zero Pledges in the EU and Germany

“…It is difficult to assess whether ideology is actually shaping policy-formulation processes to a significant extent, as it is not easy to distinguish it from interestgroup politics (Carter & Little, 2021) and the framing of policy instruments (Clarke et al, 2015;Stecula & Merkley, 2019). Furthermore, partisan ideologies are a notoriously moving target (Carter & Little, 2021).…”

“…It is difficult to assess whether ideology is actually shaping policy-formulation processes to a significant extent, as it is not easy to distinguish it from interestgroup politics (Carter & Little, 2021) and the framing of policy instruments (Clarke et al, 2015;Stecula & Merkley, 2019). Furthermore, partisan ideologies are a notoriously moving target (Carter & Little, 2021). The yet limited empirical research in this area suggests that ideology has a rather small role on policy ambition (Thonig et al, 2020), but may indeed have an influence on the policy-formulation process stage (Abban & Hasan, 2021;Gromet et al, 2013).…”

From green crap to net zero: Conservative climate policy 2015–2022

“…Secondly, the European party politics literature typically identifies the environment as a classic valence issue where there is agreement on the need to protect the environment, with competition primarily over the competence of parties to do so; whereas in Australia and the USA, the environment, especially climate change, is regarded as a positional issue characterised by sharp partisan differences (Tranter 2013 ; Dunlap et al 2016 ; Carter and Little 2021 ). In the UK during the 2015–2022 period, climate change retained characteristics of a valence issue principally because the Conservatives maintained the cross-party consensus on the need to address it.…”