Red and Green: Air Pollution Levels and Left Party Power in OECD Countries

Recent review articles in environmental policy have called for more rigorous cross-national tests and for better integration with the standard literature on comparative politics and political economy. In this paper we take a first step in that direction, examining the relationship between air pollution and left party strength in seventeen OECD countries. Despite theoretical salience and political relevance, we know of no previous attempt of this sort. Three competing hypotheses exist. First, because of an historic agenda which emphasizes maximum employment and material welfare for the working class, left party strength might be associated with lower than normal environmental quality. Second, given the belief in government intervention to socialize the negative externalities of market capitalism, left party strength might motivate higher than normal environmental quality. Third, despite observed variations in agenda setting, policy formulation, and implementation, skeptics have often replied, “different styles, similar content”, suggesting no party relevance at all. Our analysis, controlling for quantitative energy consumption and qualitative economic structure, reveals a moderate but sustainable inverse relationship between left party strength and per capita levels of air pollution. In the conclusion we speculate how and why this result might occur.