research paper on political environment

• Environmental Crises as Economic, Political, and Social Crises
• The Social Construction of Environmental Crises
• Human Mobility during and after Environmental Crises
• Environmental Crises and Political Instability
• Economic Impacts of Environmental Crises
• Conclusions

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The Economic, Political, and Social Implications of Environmental Crises

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What : An interdisciplinary group of scientists working on human–environment interactions discussed the state of knowledge on the economic, political, and social implications of environmental crises and identified pathways for future research

When : 5–6 August 2019

Where : Braunschweig, Germany

Global environmental crises are intensifying to a worrisome degree, and increasingly intertwined. Anthropogenic climate change, for example, threatens human security through more frequent and intense extreme weather events like heat waves, droughts, and floods. At the same time, it aggravates problems related to soil degradation, biodiversity loss, disease spreading, and water scarcity, among others. These developments have been hypothesized to affect patterns of economic development, political stability, and human mobility. But while the underlying ecological, climatological, and (geo)physical changes are undeniable, environmental crises are perceived and framed by experts, decision-makers, and broader publics in heterogeneous ways. This further complicates research on, and action upon, these growing environmental problems.

An interdisciplinary workshop 1 was held in summer 2019 at the Georg Eckert Institute in Braunschweig, Germany, to discuss the interlinked economic, political, and social consequences of environmental crises, and the role of discourses and perceptions in this context.

The speakers in the first session distinguished between two dimensions—if not deeper understandings—of environmental crises. First, and in line with a realist epistemology, the part of nature that surrounds human societies (the environment) is rapidly changing. These changes are man-made and—as humans depend on a broad range of ecosystem services—will profoundly affect human societies. Second, drawing on a constructivist epistemology, the framing of a given environmental change—including the question of whether it even constitutes a crisis at all—is heterogeneous and often contested.

For instance, a presentation on two coastal cities in Germany that are similarly vulnerable to a rise in sea levels illustrated diverging public debates about the local impact of climate change. In Lübeck, the potential flooding of the old city is securitized as a major concern that is closely linked to the identity of the city as an important cultural center. The local media in Rostock, by contrast, highlights the increased prospects of tourism that a changing climate could provide for the economically weak city, thus foregoing securitization.

Different social constructions of environmental crises are deeply tied to political struggles. An assessment of climate security discourses showed that in the United States, climate change has been increasingly linked to issues of national security and political instability. This has increased overall awareness of climate-related risks, but also limited the influence of traditional environmental actors. The German discourse, by contrast, focuses on human security; until very recently, it constructed populations in the Global South as requiring the assistance of benevolent Western saviors, risking the reproduction of colonial imaginations.

Portrayals of environmental crises in the education sector were found to be political as well. For instance, many states in the Middle East and North Africa tend to utilize their education systems to portray themselves as competent and successful in addressing environmental challenges. School textbooks rather blame individual citizens or outsiders for environmental degradation, hence providing legitimacy to political and economic elites.

The second session focused on migration, flight, and displacement in the context of environmental crises. Interest in human mobility as a second-order effect of climate change has increased continuously over the last few decades, and fluctuates between taking securitization, depoliticization, and migration-friendly perspectives. The session showcased and brought into dialogue different methodological and epistemological approaches to the topic.

Using numerical models of climate-induced migration, the first contribution argued that climate change has an impact on mobility patterns but is not the largest driver thereof. The underlying causal connections and intervening variables are also not well understood yet. However migration is a process that starts on the individual or household level, illustrating the need for qualitative research on the topic. This was shown by means of an ethnography of the Ewe diaspora in/from Ghana, which discussed how environmental changes are narrated in affected populations—hence decentering debates about environment and migration. Similarly, a methodological framework of legal anthropology is helpful in understanding climate change–related migration within and from the Pacific Islands. Insights from in-depth field research provided arguments for more migration-friendly solutions and the inclusion of local voices in research and policy.

The last contribution utilized the concept of the Anthropocene to rethink how we even understand “climate-induced migration.” The concept questions the nature–culture divide that was foundational for the thinking of the Enlightenment; what is more, it asks how human transformations of the Earth exacerbate inequalities that may lead to displacement, and how these transformations are produced by economies, institutions, discourses, and practices. It thus helps to uncover issues of power and social stratification underlying different levels of (im)mobility.

In the discussion, the workshop participants not only assessed how natural and social sciences have treated climate-related migration so far—including via critical engagement with determinism, alarmism, and the prominent role of causality. They also exchanged views on the relationship between academia and policymaking. Herein they reflected on how research topics are chosen, and how insights from environment–migration research are employed in political debates.

Given the magnitude of current-day environmental crises, the presenters agreed that they are likely to impact patterns of political instability and especially intrastate violence. For climate-related disasters in particular, such a link is relatively well established. However, as for human mobility, environmental stress is only a marginal driver of conflict when compared to economic and political factors. Also, disaster–conflict links can only be detected in a relatively small number of cases characterized by preexisting vulnerability profiles such as poverty and ethnic exclusion.

Important knowledge gaps on the topic continue to exist. Teleconnections between environmental crises and instability remain underexplored, with a nexus between droughts in Russia, rising grain prices in the Middle East, and the Arab Spring being just one example. Research also focuses strongly on the macroeconomic level (e.g., resource scarcity, economic growth). Microlevel, physiological, psychological, and sociological explanations connecting climate change to violence—for example, via heat-induced aggression—deserve further exploration meanwhile. Finally, examples like the de-escalation of the civil wars in the aftermath of Typhoons Sendong in 2011 and Haiyan in 2013, which was a prerequisite for the delivery of humanitarian aid, demonstrate that environmental crises can also have a positive impact on peace and security. Such possibilities, however, are often marginalized, especially in security-oriented national discourses on the topic like those prevalent in the United States.

The latter insight is also true for debates on climate change of the Group of Twenty (G20), which the last presentation of the session addressed. While the G20 has discussed anthropogenic climate change since 2008, and issues of peace and security since 2013 (if not earlier), no intersections between both phenomena have been recognized so far. In line with this, while climate change is described as a great challenge, it is nevertheless not constructed as a crisis. Rather, the G20 emphasizes routine procedures to deal with the problem [e.g., climate financing, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)].

The session provided ample evidence for the adverse economic impact of extreme weather events—sudden and often scarcely predictable environmental crises. In countries with a low gross domestic product, hydrometeorological droughts can reduce economic growth for up to 14 years. This effect is stable across a number of model specifications, and for all world regions. Similarly, very harsh winters (dzud) put a heavy burden on all but the richest herding households in Mongolia. Sample data show a livestock mortality rate of up to 71%, which decreases food security and the chance that children complete basic education. This effect is significant in the decade after a dzud, again underscoring the potential long-term economic effects of extreme weather events. While wealth plays a key intermediary role, future research should identify additional factors that make countries and households more resilient to such events.

In line with the insights gained during other discussions, discourses and perceptions were identified as crucial to understanding the economic impacts of environmental crises. Stock markets, for example, react to more than just the severity and economic effects of hurricanes. Low media coverage of hurricanes in the United States and frequent reference to a more devastating earlier event (Hurricane Katrina) have been found to be associated with positive reactions among stock prices.

The final presentation touched upon the economic consequences of societal efforts to mitigate climate change. An ambitious coal phaseout in Germany, for instance, is predicted to decrease both employment and wage levels in the three extracting regions at least to some degree, hence potentially leading to conflicts between economic, climate, and social policies. This finding ties back to the two previous sessions, in noting that the impacts of human mitigation and adaptation efforts vis-à-vis environmental crises on mobility and conflict remain understudied.

Environmental crises increasingly interact with one another in complex and hard to predict ways, such as potentially critical interactions between planetary boundary transgressions in the dimensions of anthropogenic climate change and biosphere integrity loss. They have various impacts on human societies that again intersect with each other, for instance, when weather extremes reduce economic growth—thus increasing the violent-conflict risks that make migration more likely. Such societal impacts can again be severe enough to result in multiple crises, but also mitigate such dynamics in certain contexts too (e.g., migration as adaptation, less violence after typhoons).

Debates during the workshop made clear that a comprehensive understanding of these interlinkages is only possible if the ecological, climatological, (geo)physical, as well as socially constructed dimensions of environmental crises are all taken into consideration. Seeking a broader understanding such as this will enable scientists to uncover the political implications of various framings of environmental crises, and to devise mitigation and adaptation measures sensitive to local cultures and knowledge stocks. Such an endeavor is certainly ambitious, and will require continuous interdisciplinary cooperation across multiple methodological, epistemological, and ontological positions. Nevertheless, it ultimately promises to be a worthwhile pursuit indeed.

The workshop was co-organized by the Georg Eckert Institute for International Textbook Research (GEI), by the German Institute for Global Area Studies (GIGA), and by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK). The workshop was funded by and linked with the Leibniz Association’s Research Alliance Crises in a Globalised World.

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The Axe Remembers: On the Political Cost of Environmental Enforcement

MIT Political Science Department Research Paper No. 2024-17

39 Pages Posted: 9 Sep 2024

Clemente T. Sánchez

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) - Department of Political Science

Date Written: August 20, 2024

Recent literature has found that targeted enforcement in the Brazilian Amazon is effective at curbing deforestation, yet has not explored its political consequences. I carry out three empirical strategies in order to identify a causal effect of enforcement on electoral performance, with the expectation that when individuals benefit economically from an illegal activity they will punish politicians that seek to enforce the law. First, I exploit variations in enforcement through panel methods and instrumented by the exogenous variation of cloud cover. Second, I leverage the creation of a blacklist of worst-performing municipalities within a difference-in-difference design. And third, I exploit a geographical discontinuity created by a satellite-based monitoring program aimed at identifying deforestation. All three designs show consistent evidence that environmental enforcement had negative electoral results for the Brazilian Partido dos Trabalhadores , the party that implemented these policies. This effect is limited to the national incumbent, with no effect found on local races. I leverage administrative records on fines and donations in order to support the blame attribution mechanism, finding that individuals become significantly more likely to donate to the incumbent's opponents after being fined. Finally, I test the electoral consequences of opting for a carrot-based approach at curbing deforestation, finding that the party experienced a positive electoral return. I then discuss the normative implications of these findings.

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The Articles in the Special Issue: The Politics of Governing Loss and Damage

Agenda for global environmental politics, understanding the politics and governance of climate change loss and damage.

Lisa Vanhala is a professor of political science at University College London. She teaches and researches on global climate governance, climate change litigation, and the intersections of climate change and human rights. Her research has been published in Comparative Political Studies , Law & Society Review , Global Environmental Change , and Environmental Politics . She is the principal investigator on a European Research Council Starting Grant Project on the Politics and Governance of Climate Change Loss and Damage (CCLAD, project number 755753.O). She is currently working on a solo-authored monograph entitled Governing the End: The Making of Climate Change Loss and Damage focusing on the history of the UN negotiations on loss and damage. She is also co-editing a book with Elisa Calliari entitled Governing Climate Change Loss and Damage: The National Turn .

Elisa Calliari is a research scholar at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis in Vienna. Her research focuses on the politics and governance of climate change loss and damage at different scales, from climate change negotiations to national policy-making processes. She is also interested in studying how planned relocation can be employed as an anticipatory and strategic form of climate change adaptation in Europe. Calliari is currently a member of the Italian delegation at the UNFCCC, providing technical support on loss and damage to the Italian Ministry of the Environment and Energy Security.

Adelle Thomas is a senior fellow at the Climate Change Adaptation and Resilience Research Centre at University of The Bahamas, and Senior Scientist and Loss and Damage Lead at Climate Analytics. Her areas of research focus on adaptation, limits to adaptation and loss and damage in the developing world context, with a particular focus on small island developing states. A human-environment geographer, Adelle has over sixteen years of practice in intersections between climate action and development.

Corresponding author: [email protected]

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Lisa Vanhala , Elisa Calliari , Adelle Thomas; Understanding the Politics and Governance of Climate Change Loss and Damage. Global Environmental Politics 2023; 23 (3): 1–11. doi: https://doi.org/10.1162/glep_e_00735

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This introduction to the 2023 special issue of Global Environment Politics brings questions related to politics and political processes to the forefront in the study of climate change loss and damage. The aim of avoiding the detrimental impacts of climate change has been at the heart of the international response to global climate change for more than thirty years. Yet the development of global governance responses to climate change loss and damage—those impacts that we cannot, do not or choose not to prevent or adapt to—has only over the last decade become a central theme within the discussions under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Loss and damage has also become a research topic of growing importance within an array of disciplines, from international law to the interdisciplinary environmental social sciences. However, the engagement of scholars working in the fields of political science and international relations has been more limited so far. This is surprising because questions about how to best respond to loss and damage are fundamentally political, as they derive from deliberative processes, invoke value judgments, imply contestation, demand the development of policies, and result in distributional outcomes. In this introduction we describe the context and contributions of the research articles in the special issue. By drawing on a wide range of perspectives from across the social sciences, the articles render visible the multifaceted politics of climate change loss and damage and help to account for the trajectory of governance processes.

For decades, the scientific community has warned of the potentially catastrophic consequences of climate change, including rising sea levels, increasingly frequent and intense storms, and the degradation of land, water, and ecosystems. Yet, it is only very recently that governance arrangements have begun to be developed to explicitly respond to those climate impacts that we may not be able (or choose not) to adapt to. While policy efforts to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to climate change impacts have been at the heart of climate governance efforts for decades, climate change loss and damage has only recently emerged as “a third pillar” of climate governance. Recent developments within the UNFCCC underscore the timeliness of this special issue. This collection of articles is published during a critical juncture in the development of governance arrangements within the climate change regime and broader governance landscape that will influence the way that loss and damage is understood and responded to in the near future. These discussions are likely to shape institutions and policies that will establish path dependencies, build new constituencies, and ultimately influence the trajectory of people’s lives as they cope with the wide variety of losses associated with climate change. We suggest that scientific understanding and evidence are much needed, and the articles published here stand to help inform policy approaches—both those that are being rapidly developed now and others that will emerge in the future. This introduction briefly surveys historic and recent developments, highlights the key contributions of this collection of articles, and articulates an agenda for future research.

The concept of loss and damage was introduced in the early 1990s by the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) in the UNFCCC and has gradually become institutionalized at the international level (Roberts and Huq 2015 ; Vanhala and Hestbaek 2016 ). While an official definition has never been agreed in the climate regime, current scholarly understandings emphasize the unavoidability and irreversibility of certain climate change impacts and the role played by constraints and limits to adaptation as drivers of adverse outcomes (Mechler et al. 2020 ). 1 The latter can include both monetizable impacts and “non-economic losses” (NELs), such as loss of biodiversity, territory, cultural heritage, and climate-induced human mobility (Serdeczny et al. 2018 ). In recent years, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has increasingly included assessments of “losses and damages” in its reports—understood as harmful impacts or risks that can result from climate change-related slow onset hazards and extreme weather events (IPCC 2022b ).

Within the international climate change negotiations, discussions on loss and damage have progressed far more slowly than on mitigation and adaptation, with differing views among countries about what loss and damage encompasses, the best approaches to respond to it, and appropriate sources and levels of finance to address it (Calliari et al. 2020 ; Johansson et al. 2022 ). The contentious nature of the negotiations has led to loss and damage being repeatedly referred to as a highly political topic, even as impacts of climate change are already being documented around the world (IPCC 2022a ). However, recent milestones in the UNFCCC have highlighted the urgency of the need for technical and practical understandings of what constitutes loss and damage and related responses, as distinct from adaptation. The decision at COP27 to establish new funding arrangements, including a fund to respond to loss and damage, has brought the issue to the attention of a much broader set of actors, including multilateral banks, humanitarian organizations, development agencies, the private sector, and a wide range of UN bodies, and has highlighted existing gaps in policy approaches to address loss and damage (Naylor and Ford 2023 ). All of this suggests a pressing need for a deeper conceptual understanding of and empirical evidence about climate change loss and damage.

Existing social science research highlights the myriad ways in which the problem of loss and damage—and appropriate governance arrangements—are articulated (McNamara and Jackson 2019 ). While a variety of disciplines have developed bodies of literature on topics related to loss and damage (e.g., disaster studies, impact modeling), studies specifically focused on climate change loss and damage emerged around 2010, with a significant increase in research after 2013 (McNamara and Jackson 2019 ). Early work tended to focus on different conceptualizations of loss and damage, finding varying interpretations and definitions, influenced in part by disciplinary backgrounds. Scholars in law (e.g., Adelman 2016 ; Broberg and Romera 2021 ; Burkett 2016 ; Toussaint 2021 ), geography (e.g., Barnett et al. 2016 ; Hepach and Hartz 2023 ; Tschakert et al. 2019 ; Warner and van der Geest 2013 ), anthropology (e.g., Oliver-Smith 2013 ; O’Reilly et al. 2020 ), economics (e.g., Fanning and Hickel 2023 ; Markandya and González-Eguino 2019 ) and in the interdisciplinary environmental social sciences (e.g., Boyd et al. 2017 ; Boyd et al. 2021 ; James et al. 2014 ; Mechler et al. 2019 ; Mechler et al. 2020 ) have begun to turn their attention to the phenomenon of loss and damage and related responses. By contrast, scholars working in the fields of political science and international relations have only recently (with a few exceptions such as Calliari 2016 ; Calliari et al. 2020 ; Page and Heyward 2017 ; Vanhala and Calliari 2022 ; Vanhala and Hestbaek 2016 ; Wapner 2014 ) begun to engage with this novel area of climate research. Yet, the contribution those working with the theoretical approaches and methodological tools of the discipline can make is critical: questions about how best to address climate change loss and damage are fundamentally political, as they derive from processes of deliberation and imply distributional outcomes. Moreover, Javeline ( 2014 ) and Eriksen et al. ( 2015 ) had already noted that climate change adaptation—far from being a neutral, technical, and managerial process—is based on contestation of what counts as “adaptive” for different groups and implies differentiated outcomes in terms of vulnerability and the capacity to adapt. We suggest that these considerations are equally applicable in the loss and damage realm. Following Tschakert et al. ( 2019 ), we note that what counts as “loss” in different places and over time is highly contextual and will be grappled with (or not) through local, national, regional, and international political processes.

We have two objectives for this special issue. First, by recognizing the highly interdisciplinary essence of loss and damage research, we seek to promote dialogue, cross-fertilization, and the building of bridges across social science disciplines concerned with politics and governance. Second, we seek to inform a policy landscape that was slow-moving for many years but has begun to shift rapidly. Political actors and practitioners from the international to the local level are quickly having to get to grips with the conceptual debate, policy discussions, and empirical evidence on a topic that is both a threatening material reality and a product of sociopolitical processes.

In terms of scope, the special issue investigates how loss and damage as a “governance object” (Allan 2017 ) has been shaped by contentious negotiations within the UNFCCC (Calliari 2016 ; Vanhala and Hestbaek 2016 ) and has been then enacted (or not) by a range of actors across different levels and governance sites. A growing number of actors are engaging with the implications of loss and damage governance, including a range of nonstate actors from international organization secretariats to civil society groups to scientists working within and beyond the IPCC. At the national level, a wide variety of institutions, from environment ministries to disaster risk management departments to courts, have been invoked in loss and damage governance efforts but represent significantly different paradigms for action. Against this background, much of the existing scholarship still situates loss and damage at the scale of UNFCCC negotiations and focuses predominantly on states.

We broaden this perspective by posing the following overarching questions: 1. What kinds of knowledge and ideas do stakeholders draw upon when constructing, reproducing, or contesting loss and damage as a governance object? With what consequences? 2. How do different stakeholders engage with loss and damage at different scales (international, national, local) and across sites of governance (e.g., in international negotiations, across epistemic communities, and within national institutions)? 3. How does this engagement affect the ways in which the idea of climate change loss and damage are conceptualized and institutionalized at the international and national levels?

The articles cover a breadth of social science approaches: international relations, comparative politics, science and technology studies, and political theory. The articles themselves are underpinned by a shared interest in questions of power and justice.

A first group of articles explores the relationship between loss and damage politics, on the one hand, and science, knowledge, and evidence on the other. Serdeczny relies on a process tracing approach to show how developing country negotiators used knowledge produced within the UNFCCC process (e.g., technical papers) and beyond (e.g., NGOs reports) in a political way to further their interests in loss and damage negotiations from 2003 to 2013. While the role of knowledge is usually conceptualized as helping to justify or rationalize previously taken positions, Serdeczny finds that it can make a difference in policy outcomes. She portrays knowledge as having both an institutional effect, whereby it was used to establish loss and damage as a theme under the UNFCCC, and an individual effect, providing actors with a sense of clarity and legitimacy that strengthened their resolve in defending political positions. The article by Hartz focuses instead on the way the IPCC has engaged with the politically charged concept of loss and damage over time. The IPCC plays a key role in the climate change governance landscape, as it provides “certified” scientific and policy-oriented knowledge” to stimulate and legitimize climate policies (van der Sluijs et al. 2010 ). Hartz traces the representation of loss and damage across IPCC assessment reports and accounts for the inclusion of the term “losses and damages” in the Summaries for Policymakers (SPMs) of the Working Group II and III of the IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Cycle. By focusing on the implications of orthographic choices (“Loss and Damage”, “loss and damage”, “losses and damages”) in the science–policy discourse, she shows how different ways of spelling out the concept are appraised differently by individuals, depending on their context and position in the loss and damage space. For those more closely involved with the political sphere, the wording of “losses and damages” is considered yet another way to impede the development of global governance in this area, but for those engaged with the topic at scientific-technical and practical levels the inclusion of loss and damage terminology in IPCC SPMs is perceived as an important next step in the institutionalization of the topic.

A second group of articles draws attention to the important role of ideas and meaning-making processes in the politics of loss and damage governance. While the ideas of liability and compensation are often associated with loss and damage, Wallimann-Helmer argues that, from an ethical perspective they can be de-coupled in the governance of loss and damage. He calls for a new way of thinking about these concepts by taking climate resilience as a point of departure. By shifting from a backward-looking to a forward-looking conceptualization, he proposes a reframing of responsibility within the sphere of loss and damage governance.

The article by Calliari and Ryder changes scale, focusing on the country level to understand how national policy actors make sense of and translate the (ill-defined) global agenda on loss and damage to the national level. They analyse how loss and damage is framed within countries' archived and updated Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and outline countries’ different understandings of what the problem of loss and damage entails and possible solutions. The authors find that countries are not simply adopting the framing of loss and damage elaborated by the UNFCCC but are instead actively shaping the concept by advancing certain understandings that are consistent with the challenges experienced in their national context. Calliari and Ryder outline an emergent two-level ideational game, whereby countries attempt to shape the global agenda by advancing certain framings of the loss and damage problem and solution space.

Finally, the article by Falzon et al. develops a typology of obstructionist tactics that countries have used to delay action on loss and damage over the last thirty years. Drawing on and contributing to international relations theories, they center their analysis on the practices of power and how it is used to shape legal and political understandings of loss and damage. The authors show how the use of these tactics has limited what the concept of loss and damage encapsulates (at least within the global governance regime) and the effect this has on potential policy solutions and legal outcomes.

The collection of articles in the special issue offer insights in three ways. First, they advance our empirical understanding by building on earlier research and highlighting the importance of varying, overlapping, and often competing discourses and conceptualizations of loss and damage (Calliari 2016 ; Vanhala and Hestbaek 2016 ; Vanhala 2023 ). The articles in this issue of GEP unpack these discourses within different settings, from the UNFCCC negotiations (Falzon et al., Serdeczny, Walliman-Helmer) to the IPCC (Hartz) to national level articulations of the problem (Calliari and Ryder). Going beyond just an analysis or description of these novel conceptualizations and existing discourses, these articles together highlight their many impacts from the institutional to the individual level and from the legal to the cognitive and emotional realms. Second, the research presented here sheds new light on the role of knowledge (as well as a lack thereof, see Vanhala et al. 2021 ) in explaining outcomes in the study of the global governance of loss and damage. For example, Hartz’s work draws on insights from science and technology studies and international relations to offer a nuanced understanding of the use and relevance of language and spelling more specifically as a way of reaching consensus at the interface of climate science and policy. Serdeczny highlights the multiple pathways through which knowledge about losses and damages shapes personal engagement, political behavior, and legal outcomes within climate change negotiations. Third, these articles contribute to broader theoretical debates within the study of global environmental politics. For instance, Falzon et al.’s typology of methods of obstruction can help us understand the full range of negotiation tactics that are deployed in the climate change regime but also in global governance more generally. Calliari and Ryder draw on the idea of a two-level ideational game to analyze developments bridging the national and international level, and Hartz shows how seemingly mundane matters, such as spelling, can shape world views. Together these articles contribute to constructivist theorizing of the modes and methods for constituting objects of global governance.

This special issue marks an important step forward in our understanding of the politics and governance of climate change loss and damage. However, we argue that there remains a pressing need for further research and for all the tools of the social sciences to be brought to bear on questions related to climate change loss. We identify three promising avenues of research here.

First, the relationship between loss and damage and adaptation is an ongoing area of research with particular relevance for policy approaches and with potential financial implications over time. In the discussions to establish the new loss and damage fund there are challenges in trying to distinguish between approaches. Planned relocation or permanent migration as a response to climate change exemplifies the challenges of sharply differentiating adaptation from loss and damage, as these approaches have been posited as viable adaptation options or as examples of grievous loss and damage by different research communities (McNamara et al. 2018 ). Other conceptually distinct but practically and empirically murky dichotomies include the differentiation between loss and damage; the distinction between noneconomic and economic losses, and the categories of impacts resulting from extreme weather and slow-onset events.

Second, while much of the early research on loss and damage focused on the local level (Warner and van der Geest 2013 ), the overwhelming focus of the literature on the politics, governance, and law of loss and damage has been on discussions within the UNFCCC. More recently, Calliari and Vanhala ( 2022 ) have argued for a “national turn” in the study of loss and damage governance. Both the existing gaps in knowledge about how national policymakers are conceptualizing and managing the issues under the heading of “loss and damage”, as well as political developments (including the operationalization of the Santiago Network on Loss and Damage, which will offer technical support to countries) demand a broader and deeper evidence base regarding the types, effectiveness, and legitimacy of policies, activities, and interventions that are already in place. Governance and politics at other scales of governance, including within states and in supra-state regional bodies, also merit attention as critically important in managing losses and damages.

Finally, this special issue seeks to stimulate political scientists’ and international relations scholars’ engagement with loss and damage, and to highlight the vital insights that scholars from across subdisciplinary fields (e.g., political theory, comparative politics, political economy, international relations) can bring to the table. A range of theoretical approaches, methodologies, and underlying epistemological commitments from within and beyond political science can help shed light on the problem and policy solutions of climate change loss and damage.

We note that scholars use different spellings and capitalizations for the term loss and damage, with some preferring to use capital letters (“Loss and Damage”) to signify the political discussions within the UNFCCC and beyond. We do not follow that convention here and authors in the special issue vary in their practices. See the article by Hartz (this issue) for more on the significance of orthographic choices.

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The impact of economic and political reforms on environmental performance in developing countries

1 School of Finance, Shanghai Lixin University of Accounting and Finance, Shanghai, China

Ghulam Rasool Madni

2 Department of Economics and Business Administration, Division of Management and Administrative Science, University of Education, Lahore, Pakistan

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All data is publicly available on the official websites of World Bank, Yale University.

The humans of modern society are enjoying the luxuries and comforts today but future generations will be facing a more polluted environment and scarcity of natural resources. So the effects of global warming and climatic changes are a major policy concern nowadays around the world. The majority of the literature treats the Carbon Dioxide emissions as an indicator of environmental deterioration but this paper considers the environmental performance index as an indicator of environment. This paper addresses the role of institutional reforms for environmental performance that is hardly discussed in the earlier literature. It is argued that a novel approach of institutional reforms can provide some useful insights for environmental performance in developing countries. There is wide agreement that institutional quality is crucial for economic sustainability but rarely focused to explore the impacts of institutional reforms on environmental performance. The institutional reforms are generally divided into two categories; economic and political reforms. This paper investigated the impact of each category of institutional reforms for environmental performance by using panel data of 122 developing economies for a period of 1996–2020. Difference in differences technique is applied to determine the impact of each category of reforms on the environment. It is found that economic and political reforms significantly contribute to protecting the environment in developing countries, and it will be a good policy option to reform the economic and political institutions to preserve the environment in these countries along with sustainable development.

1. Introduction

Environmental protection is one of the biggest problems confronted by humanity at present. Ever increase in population and per capita consumption are depleting the natural resources as well as the environment. Moreover, industrialization, urban concentration and modern forms of agricultural methods are polluting the water, soil and air resources all over the world. The natural environment is becoming hazardous and toxic for the endurance of future populations. The rising emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) are affecting the blue planet and estimations of “United States Development Authority” and “Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development” reveal the rise in earth temperature by 2 centigrade by the end of 2050. It will have more adverse effects on the earth. Global warming is causing melting glaciers and polar ice with two to three times higher as compared with last century while loss of biodiversity is unpredictable and unforeseen. There is a sharp increase in saline soils by 50% up to 2050, resulting in land deterioration in every country.

Environmental challenges are not specific to geo boundaries, and steps taken by a single country alone are not sufficient to protect the global environment. The green and sustainable economy requires a basic transition of social, economic, and energy systems. Environmental and economic policies are important for the green economy along with improvement of prevailing institutions for effective implementation and monitoring of policies [ 1 ]. Environmental involvement are essential economic policies eventually employed in a wider institutional setting [ 2 ]. To achieve the objectives of environmental policies, the political process directing policy adoption plays a central role in conjunction with the nature of institutions, social and cultural discourse, industrial structure, distribution of resources [ 3 – 5 ]. While the role of institutional quality and governance is overlooked by the quantitative models [ 6 ].

The theoretical foundations for institutional quality in the context of environment protection highlight that stronger and efficient institutions lead to better policy adoption and its outcomes. The enforcement of rules by the government reduces the level of environmental degradation. The political institutional quality is usually represented by Polity IV that shows the democratic or autocratic regimes in a country. The democratic countries have better control on environmental performance while resources are concentrated to few people in autocratic countries so the cost of public goods lie on those capturing these resources. When democracies are mature then interest of individual groups merge into common interest since gains from environmental performance decrease. Moreover, democratic countries have stronger commitments to international environmental agreements. The inefficient institutional quality leads to sub-optimal use of available resources. The corrupt officials allow the activities which damage the natural environment.

To improve the institutional quality in any country, there is dire need to reform the existing institutions. Institutional reforms are efforts to alter the regulations and constraints influencing human’s dealings. It may be considered as formation of actions, their implementation, management of crisis and way of interaction with other entities. Institutions and their reforms are at the main front of literature as well as in the vision of policy makers since the past two decades. IMF, World Bank, and other donor organizations are of great interest now to reform institutions for financial and other forms of support [ 7 – 16 ]. New institutional economics has two broader sets of literature; impact of institutions on economic activities and effect of institutional reform on economic variables. The set of former literature can be divided into further two sets; first emphasizes the impact of different measures of economic institutions [ 7 – 9 , 11 – 13 , 17 – 19 ] while second describes the effects of political institutions [ 20 ]. Similarly, impacts of institutional reforms are highlighted in numerous studies but their role for environmental performance is little elaborated [ 21 – 29 ]. The theoretical reason for institutional reforms in the perspective of the environment is given by the public good feature. Private agents remain unable to calculate the pollution costs due to allied externalities, generating the reason for government interference [ 30 ]. Related questions comprise how the nature and different forms of institutional reforms affect environmental performance. In this perspective, Dasgupta and Mäler [ 31 ] are of the view that reforming the political institutions are somewhat persuasive in assuring environmental performance. Deacon [ 32 ] highlights that democracy is more likely to assure higher levels of environmental quality, arguing that autocracy provides such public goods inefficiently because resources are controlled by a small group. These findings are supported by numerous studies [ 33 – 35 ]. Democracy has a negative relationship with CO 2 emissions, water pollution, land deterioration, and deforestation rates [ 36 , 37 ].

Economic institutions are laws, regulations, and policies regulating the relationships among economic agents in an economy along with restrictions on agents to connect in agreed economic transactions. These institutions ensure the incentive mechanism and structure, affecting technology level, investment in humans and physical capital, and way of production. The central objective of economic institutions is minimizing transaction costs. The rule of law, policies affecting consumption and production, property rights, and regulatory quality are examples of economic institutions. While political institutions are constraints concerned to organizing the polity, how power is controlled, legitimated, constituted, redistributed, and exercised.

Stern [ 38 ] highlighted many factors causing the deterioration of the natural environment but economic actors amend their attitudes in context of institutional requirements. Democracy is another institutional factor contributing significantly to preserve the environment [ 39 , 40 ]. Mukherjee and Chakrabotry [ 41 ] found a positive relationship among environmental quality, socio-political and socio-economic factors. They are of the view that institutional quality, good governance and level of democracy cause the advancement or decline of environmental performance. It is explained that efficient rules in a society cause to reduce pollution, arguing that strong rules turn “Environmental Kuznets Curve” (EKC) at lower per capita income [ 42 ]. Culas [ 43 ] found that contract enforcement by government reduces the deforestation rate, while Bhattarai and Hammig [ 44 ] highlighted that civil liberty and political rights also cause in reduction deforestation rate.

Environmental protection is one of the gigantic challenges and major focused area for governments, policy makers, researchers, scholars, and academicians involving countries, communities, and individuals around the globe. Environmental sustainability is the major approach contrary to the background of the population growth of humans and uncontrolled exploitation of the natural environment by human activities. The major interest of modern society is that humans are enjoying the luxuries and comforts today but future generations will be facing a more polluted environment and scarcity of natural resources. It is our responsibility to maintain the earth in a self-sustainable manner ensuring equal opportunities to our future generation along with other living species cohabiting with us.

Environmental protection requires a fundamental transformation of economic, political, social and energy systems. The targeted policies will be helpful in steering the transition but it requires more improvement in institutional quality to ensure the implementation of policies and effective monitoring. Environmental policies are ultimately implemented by institutions prevailing in a country. The objectives of environmental policies are dependent on the political process having the ability of policy adoption along with underlying institutions, industrial structure and distribution of power and resources. It is obvious that the importance of institutional reforms cannot be negated if the challenges related to environmental performance are to be tackled on the global, regional, national, and local level. There are numerous factors examined by earlier studies of environmental performance and institutional quality but the relationship between variables of institutional reforms and environmental performance have to be discussed extensively. Institutional reforms are rarely elaborated in earlier macroeconomic analysis of environmental quality. The research question is devised as the impact of institutional reforms on environmental performance in developing countries. The economies without institutional reforms to protect the environment have been heavily criticized over the years. The question is whether or not institutional reforms could positively affect environmental performance. Thus, it is the intention of this study to explore the impact of reforms on environmental performance. To address this issue, a panel of 122 developing countries is selected by considering their economic, political, and environmental indicators to test the relation between institutional reforms and environment. The broad objectives of the study are to explore the impacts of political and economic reforms on environmental performance in developing countries, investigating the interaction effects of each type of reforms. So data is used for 122 developing economies covering the period of 1996–2020 while the difference in difference (DID) regression approach is used for data analysis.

After introduction, section II explains the methodology of the paper. The next section comprises details of data and its sources then empirical findings and discussion are explained in the section IV. Section V concludes the paper.

2. Methodology

This study used the difference in difference (DID) technique for estimation that is suitable to determine the effect of pre and post reforms experiences. This approach calculates the outcomes for two time periods of treated and control groups. The pre reform groups are considered as “control” while post reform groups are considered as “treated”. If the same units in a group are present in each period, then the average obtained in the control group is deducted from mean value of treatment group to resolve biasedness issues. To find the effect of reforms on environmental performance, it can be expressed as;

where EP is environmental performance, ϴ i is “time invariant impact” unique to individual i , ϴ t expresses the common impact in time period t for all individuals, REF is institutional reform, Z represents control variables and ϵ it is “individual time varying error distributed independently”. For computation of ϴ, some specific approach is needed because ϴ i and ϴ t are related to reforms in many non-determined sources so Eq ( 1 ) including control variable turns, where YP is per capita GDP;

If ϴ i and ϴ t are dependent on reforms, then first difference may be taken for estimation so Eq ( 2 ) becomes;

“Where Δ t is difference of individual observations across periods and Δ t ϴ t is difference in common time effects. But there are two periods in the model; pre reforms and post reforms period. Difference in differences estimator takes the difference between the differences between the two groups such that:

Superscript t and c in Eq ( 4 ) represent the treated and control groups respectively, E(EP i1 t l REF i1 ) is expected outcome of countries after reforms while E(EP i1 t l REF i0 ) is outcome of same group before reforms. In the same way , E(EP i0 c l REF i1 ) is outcome of control after reforms in treated group and E(EP i0 c l REF i0 ) is outcome of control group before the reforms. Two structural assumptions are mandatory for difference in difference estimation. One is common time effect across the control and treated groups while other is stable composition of both groups before and after reforms” [ 45 ]. Upon violations of these assumptions, Giavazzi and Tabellini [ 22 ] described many possibilities to decrease the violations of these assumptions; “First, include in the control variables dummies to capture the characteristics that make countries different. The second suggestion is to include in the control group both countries that have not experienced reform at all and countries that have experienced reform before the beginning of the sample period.”

There are many advantages of DID approach, especially when pre and post policy effects have to be analyzed [ 46 ]. DID is a microeconomic approach that handles many critical endogeneity issues when comparing two heterogeneous individuals. The treatment effect can be measured from treated and control group over time. Moreover, this method permits to estimate the variations within and outside the country [ 47 ]. The treated and control group may be compared before and after policy implications.

3. Data and its sources

This study used the “Environmental Performance Index” (EPI) to gauge the environmental performance of economies in account of humans’ protection from environmental harms and protection of eco system. There are two main weighed indicators in the index: “Ecosystem Vitality (70%) and Environmental Health (30%), is divided into 10 policy categories, overall measuring 22 different indicators. EPI is a positive indicator, meaning that the higher the EPI, the better the respective country’s environmental performance. EPI succeeds in combining many indicators—which were only individually taken into account when testing environmental quality—in one. It is becoming quite popular in measuring environmental performance due to its integration of academic research, thus making it, in the authors’ opinion, the most complete and appropriate indicator for the overall measurement of environmental performance” [ 48 ].

There are two broad categories of institutions: political and economic institutions. Economic reforms are defined as comprehensive and large alterations to advance regulatory quality, rendering monetary and fiscal institutions’ independence, protecting property rights, reducing corruption, strengthening of judiciary, and enhancing corporate governance. The opportunities are created for people through these reforms for their participation in economic activities. The quality of economic institutions is measured through the economic freedom index obtained from “The Heritage Foundation”. To measure the “economic freedom index”, 12 quantitative and qualitative variables are divided into four sub-categories; regulatory efficiency, government size, rule of law, and open markets.

Political institutions are “political rules of the game”. These are constraints and regulation governing political processes and decisions making along with ability of citizens to meet the objectives of that process. Political reforms are comprehensive modification connected with how power is constituted and practiced. POLITY IV is used to measure the political institutions ranging from -10 to +10 reflecting hereditary monarchy to consolidated democracy.

The criteria for political and economic reforms are taken from [ 22 , 49 ]. Economic reforms are calculated using forward and backward moving average. “The economic reforms are considered in those countries where forward moving average is greater than backward average by at least 12 points. The reforms are divided into two heads; big and small reforms. If forward moving average is greater by at least 2 points, then it is considered as small reforms but if it is greater than by at least 4 points then it is considered as big reforms. The political institutions reforms are considered when a country crosses the Polity Scores above zero because zero value shows the end of autocracy. So the non-negative value of a country is considered as a treated group while zero value is treated as a control group.” Table 1 describes the details of each variable.

GDP per capita is gained from the “World Development Indicators”. All the data is gathered from 1996–2020 for middle and lower income economies categorized by the “World Bank”. The sample and time period is selected because of restrictions in available data. All selected economies have similar institutional structure and are labelled as developing countries.

4. Empirical findings and discussion

Difference in difference (DID) technique is regressed to determine the relation between institutional reforms and environmental performance and results are pasted in the following Tables ​ Tables2 2 – 4 .

Note: The sign *, ** and *** show significance at 1%, 5% and 10% respectively. Bootstrap robust standard errors are in parentheses.

The empirical results describing the relationship between environmental performance and political reforms are reported in the above Table 2 . The findings reveal that a country’s environmental performance increases also as political reforms occur and the relationship holds afterwards, i.e., that environmental performance increases as political reforms prevail even after three and four years of political reforms. This implies that political reforms provide the fundamental conditions for environmental performance because people are involved in decision making demanding better health and environmental living conditions [ 50 ]. This really amalgamates political institutions with market economy and represents the critical role for environmental performance in developing countries. It is found that 3 years before political reforms do not contribute significantly to improve the environmental performance. Three years post political reforms and beyond, reforms positively correlate with environmental performance as well, overall suggesting that political reforms positively affect environmental performance. The relevant literature suggests that the political reforms have crucial importance for developing economies through raising the level of FDI and liberalization of capital and financial markets, and an open economy assists to protect the environment [ 51 , 52 ]. There is no immediate effect of political reforms on the countries but it is a gradual and slower process to have their positive impact [ 53 , 54 ]. Frankel and Rose [ 55 ] also found the correlations among GDP, environmental regulations, democracy, environmental quality, and trade. Their findings reveal that free democratic institutions authorize their people to demand good environmental regulations and regulatory regimes to increase the environmental quality. In the same way, Frazin and Bond [ 56 ] identified that freedom and democracy are essential to freely express the preferences of economic agents for environmental quality. It is also evident that in the beginning, political reforms create uncertainty in a society but then trust in political institutions is restored and investors have more attraction for investment, leading to spread of green technology and the economy improves its environmental performance [ 47 ]. The per capita income also increases due to political reforms by improving environmental performance as many studies [ 27 – 29 , 45 , 47 , 53 , 55 ] are of the view that exports of democratic economies increase along with increase in economic activities, so rising per capita income. The well planned economic and political structure may revolutionize the environmental performance as findings of the studies [ 57 , 58 ] highlight that democratic countries have more macro-economic stability.

In the above Table 3 , the effects of economic reforms are analyzed for environmental performance. There are two categories of economic reforms; small and big reforms. The computed coefficients show the mean performance of treated group as compared with control group, revealing that economic reforms improve the environmental performance. It is evident that post reforms in 3 years are crucial to protect the environment. The countries with small reforms also contribute positively for environmental performance. [ 39 , 40 ]. In addition to this, more than three years of economic reforms are mandatory to increase environmental performance because post three years’ reforms alter the economic structure and firms are encouraged to use environment friendly techniques for production. Even small economic reforms enhance the level of environmental performance while big economic reforms are strongly associated with environmental performance [ 42 ]. The impacts of post reforms on environmental performance are determined and empirical findings reveal that economic reforms sustain the environmental quality only when it improves continuously for more than 3 years. If societies reform the economic institutions continuously then environmental performance improves. The economies remain dependent on small reforms but do not move toward big reforms, are not able to achieve higher levels of environmental performance and even become negative after a while. Moreover, big reforms carry environmental friendly policies and high economic freedoms, sustaining and boosting economic growth at a higher rate. The empirical outcomes of the study are in line with [ 28 , 29 ]. The studies like [ 14 , 20 , 21 , 33 ] depict the positive effect of economic institutions on economic growth. Moreover, economic growth associated with economic reforms enhance environmental performance. It can be argued that higher economic growth is a source to protect the environment as rich countries have large numbers of educated people demanding better and healthy living conditions so there are well established environmental standards for industry.

Note: The sign *, ** and *** show significance at 1%, 5%, and 10% respectively. Bootstrap robust standard errors are in parentheses.

The findings in context of interaction between economic and political reforms are reported in above Table 4 , there are interesting findings. It is found that one type of reforms leads to other type of reforms; means political reforms stimulate economic reforms and vice versa. Moreover, each type of reform positively affects the environmental performance in developing countries. The study [ 40 ] investigated the effect of economic reforms on political reforms and vice versa and found that each type of reform triggered the other. The same outcomes are supported by many studies [ 23 , 42 , 45 , 51 ]. Economic reforms are a source stabilizing the financial market, the trust of investors and people restores if any type of reforms prevail in an economy so green technology will flourish the economy. The findings of the studies [ 8 , 9 , 14 – 16 , 19 , 59 , 60 ] convey that institutions have crucial importance for environmental performance. Based on the findings of the study, it is highlighted that economic and political reforms are both crucial for environmental protection in developing countries. The environment may be protected significantly through market mechanisms and political structure. The political reforms frame the rules for environmental protection while economic reforms help the production sector to be more environment friendly. The inefficient institutions and bad governance are associated with environmental degradation.

5. Conclusions

Since 1992, “United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change” has been established to improve the quality of air by decreasing the quantity of air pollutants like Carbon Dioxide emission and then actively pursued as a global agenda. All the members agreed to reduce the air pollutants to overcome the issue of global warming and climatic changes. The combating of environmental performance remained a hot and important topic among researchers and policy makers [ 61 ]. Many countries adopted multiple policy measures to protect the environment but the outcomes of these policy measures varied from region to region [ 62 ]. However, the impact of institutional reforms on environmental protection remained unknown in the existing literature. The findings of the study highlighted the institutional reforms as an important driver of environmental protection in developing countries. Environmental problems affecting developing countries are not because of technological failings only but also institutional failings. Ever increasing challenges are demanding the efficient implementations of institutional reforms nowadays. Requirement of development collaborators, changing in global terms of trade, and internal and external pressures are the reasons to trigger the reforms. These reforms are a source to provide a fair profit return and less risky environment having attraction for investors, increasing environmental performance as well as economic growth. The investors require a less risky environment for investing their money.

It was hypothesized that institutional reforms positively affect the environmental performance in developing countries. The purpose was to investigate the importance of institutional reforms in the area of environmental protection and sustainability. So this paper attempted to explore the relation between institutional reforms and environmental performance through a novel way by segregating the political and economic institutional reforms. The macro level variables and environmental performance index are used to explore the impacts of reforms on environmental performance in 122 developing economies for the period from 1996–2020 by applying difference in difference (DID) approach. Though the environment and institutions have been suggested to affect each other but the relationship between institutional reforms and environmental performance has not been examined. The findings show that the environmental performance index has positive correlation with economic and political institutional reforms. This provided a sign that an economy’s environmental performance increases as with higher levels of institutional reforms. Many studies provided theoretical or empirical confirmations consistent with few conclusions of this study or gave a handsome explanation of some conceptual connection of this study’s findings.

It is beneficial to state that the relation between environmental performance and institutional reforms can be elaborated by the fact that institutional reforms provide a rich ground to protect the environment in developing countries. Moreover, longevity of institutional reforms in any country has prime importance to explain the environmental performance. It is found that political reforms are a source to increase the level of environmental protection. When democracy in a country prevails then people have more rights as compared with non-democratic countries. So people in democratic countries are free to express their thoughts and opinions. These people demand a pollution free environment for their own and future generations from the ruling authorities [ 63 – 66 ]. The findings of the earlier literature reveal that democratic economies have stricter rules in favor of environmental protection. This study is also an addition in literature by establishing a relationship among political reforms, economic reforms and environmental performance because reforms drive to change the behaviors of economic agents to be more environmental friendly. So this study broadened the cluster of institutional variables by considering economic and political variables for a better explanation of environmental performance.

However, this study has some limitations that may be helpful for future research. Though the indices of Environmental Performance Index are reliable and follow the standard statistical procedures, environmental performance may be measured by combining some other variables of environment. It would have value for future exploration to recognize an econometric model with many factors, apart from economic growth, that may affect environmental performance.

Funding Statement

The authors received no specific funding for this work.

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Article contents

International political economy and the environment.

• Gabriele Spilker , Gabriele Spilker Department of Political Science and Sociology, University of Salzburg
• Vally Koubi Vally Koubi Center for Comparative and International Studies, ETH Zurich
• , and  Thomas Bernauer Thomas Bernauer Department of Humanities, Social and Political Sciences, Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich
• https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190228637.013.172
• Published online: 29 March 2017

How does liberalization of trade and investment (i.e., economic globalization) as well as membership in international organizations (i.e., political globalization) affect the natural environment? Does economic and/or political globalization lead to ecological improvement or deterioration? This article reviews the existing literature on international political economy (IPE) and the environment in view of these and related questions.

While globalization has various dimensions—economic, social, and political—IPE focuses mainly on the economic dimension when analyzing the effect of globalization on the environment. In particular, IPE puts most emphasis on the environmental implications of trade in goods and services as well as foreign direct investment (FDI). Even though both trade and investment are thought to have a substantial impact on the natural environment, the existing literature demonstrates that the effects of economic globalization on the environment are neither theoretically nor empirically one-dimensional. This means that existing research does not allow for a clear-cut overall assessment in terms of whether globalization leads to an improvement or deterioration of the environment. This is the case because the impact of economic globalization on the environment materializes via different mechanisms, some of which are supposedly good for the environment, and some of which are bad.

On the one hand, economic globalization may improve environmental quality via its positive effect on economic growth, since trade and FDI facilitate specialization among countries according to their comparative advantage and the transfer of resources across countries. On the other hand, relevant economic theory gives little reason to believe that free trade and FDI will influence all countries in the same way. Instead, when considering the relationship between economic globalization and the environment, it is important to consider the interactions between scale, composition, and technique effects created by different national characteristics and trade and investment opportunities. In particular, the scale effect of openness to trade and capital mobility increases environmental degradation through more intensive production. The technique effect predicts a positive effect of trade and FDI on the environment through the use of cleaner techniques of production. And the change in the sectoral composition of a country as a consequence of trade and FDI, the composition effect , could positively or negatively affect the environment of a country (e.g., a change from agriculture to industry may lead to higher energy consumption and air pollution while a change from industry or agriculture to service is expected to decrease environmental degradation). Consequently, the overall effect of trade and FDI on environmental quality can be positive, negative, or nonexistent strongly depending on the specific situation of the country under investigation.

Furthermore, both theory and empirical research highlight the potential for government policy and environmental regulations to affect the relationship between trade/FDI and the environment. On the one hand, increased competition between economic actors (usually companies) due to increased market openness (globalization) might cause a race to the bottom or at least regulatory chill in formal and informal environmental standards as well as pollution havens attracting foreign direct investment. The reason is that countries might weaken (or at least not increase) their environmental policies in order to protect industries from international competition or attract foreign firms and FDI motivated by the expectation of lower costs of environmental protection. Hence the (theoretical) expectation here is that developed countries will refrain from adopting more stringent environmental regulations and might even reduce existing standards due to competition with countries that have laxer environmental regulation. And less-developed countries will adopt lax environmental standards to attract FDI flowing into pollution-intensive sectors and export the respective goods to jurisdictions with higher environmental standards.

In contrast, the Porter hypothesis states that a tightening of environmental regulations may stimulate technological innovation and thus help improve economic competitiveness. In addition, trade openness may induce an international ratcheting up of environmental standards (trading up) as higher environmental standards of richer and greener countries spread—via trade and investment relationships—to countries starting out with lower environmental standards. Furthermore, multinational corporations engaging in FDI and applying universal environmental standards throughout their operations tend to transfer greener technology and management practices to host countries, thus promoting the upgrade of local environmental standards and improving the environmental quality in those countries (the so-called pollution halo effect).

Echoing the many theoretical pathways through which globalization can affect the natural environment, empirical studies estimating the impact of trade and FDI on environmental standards and environmental quality deliver quite heterogeneous results. In particular, the literature points to various factors mediating the effect of trade and FDI on the environment, such as differences in technology between industrial and developing countries, stringency of environmental regulations, property rights and political institutions, corruption levels as well as the pollution intensity of multinationals.

More recently, IPE scholars have started to study the political dimensions of globalization and how they are related to environmental protection efforts. Memberships in international organizations are at the center of this research and recent studies analyze, for example, how they may affect the quality of the environment. Other studies focus more on specific organizations, such as the World Trade Organization, and, for instance, evaluate whether in trade disputes over environmental standards economic or environmental concerns prevail. Finally, a new strand of the IPE and environment literature deals with the micro level and studies how citizens evaluate economic openness in light of potential environmental concerns.

• globalization
• environment
• Environmental Kuznets Curve
• pollution havens
• pollution halo
• race to the bottom
• race to the top
• international organizations

Introduction

One of the most contentious issues in current debates on the economy–environment nexus concerns the environmental impact of international economic liberalization (i.e., free trade and free capital movement). This controversy began with the formation of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and negotiations on the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), and gained further momentum in the context of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol and other international environmental agreements.

So, how does liberalization of trade and investment (i.e., economic globalization) affect the natural environment? Under which circumstances does economic globalization lead to a deterioration or amelioration of a country’s natural environment? And what about other forms of globalization, such as memberships in international organizations? Do these forms of globalization also have profound impacts on countries’ natural environment? This article reviews the existing literature on international political economy (IPE) and the environment in view of these and related questions.

While globalization has various dimensions—economic, social, and political—IPE focuses mainly on the economic dimension when analyzing the effect of globalization on the environment. In particular, IPE puts most emphasis on the environmental implications of trade in goods and services as well as foreign direct investment (FDI). Even though both trade and investment strongly affect the environment, the existing literature demonstrates that the effect of economic globalization on the environment at large materializes via different mechanisms, some of which may be good for the environment, and some of which may be bad. Hence an overall, that is, unconditional, assessment of the impact of economic globalization on the environment is hardly possible, since this impact depends on a specific country’s situation, for example, on its economic wealth, its political institutions, or the type of environmental regulation. This review therefore evaluates different mechanisms through which globalization might affect the environment.

Starting with globalization-induced adverse environmental effects, increased competition between economic actors (usually firms) due to increased market openness (globalization) might, in the worst case, cause a regulatory race to the bottom or at least regulatory chill in formal and informal environmental standards. And it might induce some jurisdictions to serve as pollution havens attracting dirty foreign direct investment. The reason is that countries might weaken (or at least not strengthen) their environmental policies in an attempt to protect their industries from international competition or attract foreign firms and FDI motivated by the expectation of lower environmental protection costs. The most common (theoretical) expectation here is that developed (industrialized) countries will refrain from adopting more stringent environmental regulations and might even reduce existing standards due to competition with countries that have laxer environmental regulation. And less-developed countries presumably adopt lax environmental standards to attract FDI flowing into pollution-intensive sectors and export the respective goods to jurisdictions with higher environmental standards.

In contrast, the so-called Porter hypothesis states that a tightening of environmental regulations may stimulate technological innovation and may thus help improve economic competitiveness while also producing environmental benefits (Porter, 1990 ). Trade openness may therefore engender an international ratcheting up of environmental standards (trading up), as higher regulatory environmental standards of richer and greener countries spread—via trade and investment relationships—to countries starting out with lower environmental standards (Bernauer & Caduff, 2004 ; Bernauer, Engel, Kammerer, & Nogareda, 2007 ). In addition, multinational corporations engaging in FDI and applying universal environmental standards throughout their operations tend to transfer greener technology and management practices to host countries, thus promoting the upgrading of local environmental standards and improving the environmental quality in those countries (the so-called pollution halo effect).

More recently, IPE scholars have also started to study the political dimensions of globalization and their effects on environmental protection efforts. Memberships in international organizations are at the center of this research. Recent studies analyze, for example, how these organizations may affect the quality of the environment across countries. Other studies focus more on specific organizations, such as the WTO and for instance, evaluate whether in trade disputes over environmental standards economic or environmental concerns prevail. Finally, a new strand of the “IPE and environment” literature deals with the micro level and studies how citizens evaluate economic openness in light of potential environmental concerns.

The remainder of this article reviews existing research in each of these areas, and concludes by highlighting and assessing some of the theoretical and empirical challenges and pointing to avenues for further research.

Economic Globalization (Trade/FDI) and Environmental Degradation

The existing literature on the effect of international economic liberalization on the environment is extensive and highly elaborated; nevertheless, it does not allow (neither theoretically nor empirically) for a clear-cut overall assessment of this relationship. As stated above the main reason for this stems from the fact that some effects of economic liberalization on the environment are indirect, as they run via economic growth, and some are direct; that is, they hold for a given level of income. In both cases, the effects can be either beneficial or detrimental for the environment. In the following, we elaborate on these effects.

Indirect Effect via Income

Economic globalization can have an effect on countries’ natural environment via its impact on welfare. In particular, it is argued that international economic integration (openness) allows countries to specialize in those industries in which they have a comparative advantage and hence allows for a more efficient allocation of resources. Due to the resulting welfare-enhancing gains, a country’s national income tends to increase (Frankel & Rose, 2005 ). In the long run, it can be argued that these increases in general welfare lead to a rise in demand for public goods provision as the demand for most public goods such as better environmental quality, education, or health care usually increases with growing income (Deacon, 2009 ; Selden & Song, 1994 ). In the short run, however, the effect of an increase in income depends on the current income level of the respective country.

The linkage of income and the environment has evoked much discussion and has provoked ample empirical research over the last decades. The common thread in these studies is that environmental quality is claimed to deteriorate at low levels of income and then improve at higher income levels after a tipping point is reached (Grossman & Krueger, 1991 ). This inverted U-shaped relationship between income and environmental quality has become generally known as the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) (see Figure 1 ). 1

Figure 1: Stylized environmental Kuznets curve.

Four factors arguably influence the particular shape of the EKC: the scale of the economy, its structure or composition, the level of technology, as well as the income elasticity of the demand for environmental quality. 2

More precisely, over the course of a country’s economic development, rising national income increases the scale of economic activity, which—all else equal—leads to rising pollution levels (scale effect). However, after a certain threshold of national income has been reached, pollution is hypothesized to decline due to two effects: First, the composition of the economy is likely to change from manufacturing to a larger share of services (composition effect). Second, with rising national income, technological progress tends to lead to less environmental pollution (technology effect).

Grossman and Krueger’s ( 1991 ) original arguments on the EKC motivated a lot of empirical studies aimed at confirming or refuting the EKC based on a variety of environmental indicators, such as air pollution (Bruvoll & Medin, 2003 ; Deacon & Norman, 2006 ; Du, Li, & Yan, 2014 ; Grossman & Krueger, 1995 ; Hettige, Mani, & Wheeler, 2000 ; Holtz-Eakin & Selden, 1995 ; Managi, Hibiki, & Tsurumi, 2009 ; Selden & Song 1994 ; Shafik & Bandyopadhyay, 1992 ; Verbeke and De Clercq, 2006 ); carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions (Azomahou, Laisney, & Van, 2006 ; Heil & Selden, 2001 ; Managi et al., 2009 ; Plassmann & Khanna, 2006 ); water pollution (Paudel, Zapata, & Susanto, 2005 ); deforestation (Barbier, 2000 ; Barbier & Burgess, 2001 ; Culas, 2007 ); hazardous waste and toxins (Rupasingha, Goetz, Debertin, & Pagoulatos, 2004 ); and biodiversity loss (Dietz & Adger, 2003 ; Lantz & Martínez-Espiñeira, 2008 ; McPherson & Nieswiadomy, 2005 ; Tevie, Grimsrud, & Berrens, 2011 ).

However, criticism concerning inconsistencies or ambiguities in the theoretical modeling as well as concerns over econometric analyses have arisen, and critics have challenged both the findings and the policy implications of EKC studies (Dasgupta, Laplante, Wang, & Wheeler, 2002 ; Stern, 2004 ). Overall, the existing research suggests that the EKC model holds for different pollutants in different ways, depending on the choice of the pollutant, study area, time period, and statistical procedures (Harbaugh, Levinson, & Wilson, 2002 ; Managi et al., 2009 ; Millimet, List, & Stengos, 2003 ).

Moreover, one strand in the EKC literature posits that there may be a political component to the EKC, which implies that at early stages of economic development, environmental quality is generally considered a luxury good; since states at this stage of economic development have only limited resources available, environmental performance usually ranks far behind the demand for better living conditions, for example. However, once people attain a certain standard of living, environmental quality turns into a normal public good, and citizens demand that their government takes actions to reduce or avoid pollution, for example, by enacting appropriate environmental regulations (Grossman & Krueger, 1995 ; Selden & Song, 1994 ; Shafik, 1994 ). Dasgupta and Mäler ( 1995 ) and others also note that political rights and civil liberties are important components in protecting the environment.

The importance of political institutions in the EKC relationship has also been examined empirically in papers that consider political variables, in particular, political rights, civil liberties as well as bureaucratic quality, in addition to income in the EKC regression (e.g., Barrett & Graddy, 2000 ; Bättig & Bernauer, 2009 ; Bernauer & Koubi, 2009 ; Cao & Prakash, 2012 ; Congelton, 1992 ; Culas, 2007 ; Farzin & Bond, 2006 ; Harbaugh et al., 2002 ; Li & Reuveny, 2006 , 2009 ; Lin & Liscow, 2013 ; Maxwell & Reuveny, 2005 ; Panayotou, 1997 ; Torras & Boyce, 1998 ; Ward, 2008 ; You, Zhu, Yu, & Peng, 2015 ). Most of these studies report that more democratic political institutions tend to significantly increase both environmental standards and environmental quality.

To summarize, the indirect effect of trade and FDI on the environment via income depends on the particular country’s position on the EKC. For countries still on the upward-sloping part of the curve an increase in income caused by trade and/or FDI should imply a further deterioration of its natural environment. In contrast, for countries having passed the turning point, an increase in income should be associated with improvement of environmental quality.

Direct Effects: Scale, Technique, and Composition

Turning to the direct effects of trade and FDI on the environment, these effects can be divided into a scale, technology, and composition effect, similar to the decomposition of income in the literature on the Environmental Kuznets Curve (Antweiler, Copeland, & Taylor, 2001 ; Barrett, 2000 ; Copeland & Taylor, 1994 ; Frankel, 2003 ; Frankel & Rose, 2005 ). The effects are similar for trade and FDI with a few notable differences. Hence we start our discussion in the context of how trade affects the environment and then lay out in which ways FDI effects differ.

The scale effect posits that due to expanded economic activity caused by an increase in trade, pollution will rise, all else equal (Antweiler et al., 2001 ; Cole, 2004 ; Shandra, Leckband, & London, 2009 ). However, trade also allows access to better technologies and management practices such as catalytic converters for cars or scrubbers on smokestacks, which implies that this technology effect has a positive impact on environmental quality (Esty, 2001 ). Furthermore, growing trade may also lead to a more efficient allocation of resources, which means that industries should settle where they have a comparative advantage. This is labeled the composition effect of trade. Whether this change in the allocation or composition of industry brings about an increase or decrease in pollution depends on whether a particular country has a comparative advantage in a more or a less polluting industry (Antweiler et al., 2001 ; Cole, 2004 ). We discuss this aspect in more detail further below in the context of FDI.

In one of the first studies to investigate the relationship between trade and the environment, Antweiler and colleagues ( 2001 ) examine SO2 concentrations in 43 countries from 1971 to 1996 . They find positive, that is, pollution increasing scale and composition effects, and negative technique effects. Since the technique effects were sufficiently large so as to offset the negative effects arising from scale and composition effects, they conclude that trade openness is in total associated with reduced air pollution. Frankel and Rose ( 2005 ) also examine the effects of trade on seven different indicators of environmental quality. They address the potential simultaneity of trade, environmental quality, and income by applying instrumental variable estimations in the context of a gravity model of bilateral trade with endogenous growth equations. Using cross-section data from 41 countries in the 1990s, they find support for the optimistic view that trade reduces sulfur dioxide emissions. 3 In addition, Sigman ( 2002 , 2004 ) examines the effects of trade on water pollution. She reports that country pairs with higher levels of bilateral trade are characterized by lower levels of transboundary river water pollution. A later study by Bernauer and Kuhn ( 2010 ) partially supports but also qualifies these earlier findings in that it shows that trade has either a negative or insignificant effect on transboundary water pollution. Li, Xu, and Yuan ( 2015 ), on the other hand, report that trade openness has a significantly negative impact on the environment, that is, reduces air visibility in both developing and developed countries. Similarly, Shandra and colleagues ( 2009 ) find evidence that poor nations with higher levels of forestry export flows to rich nations tend to have higher rates of deforestation.

Analogous to trade, the influence of FDI on the environment can be divided into a scale, composition, and technology effect. The arguments are quite similar to the trade context, with slight differences concerning the technology and composition effects. While the technology effect in the context of trade rests on the assumption that trade ties lead to access of better (greener) technology, in the context of FDI a foreign investor opens a production plant in the host country with its corresponding technology. In particular, it is argued that foreign investors typically rely on newer and greener technologies, which supposedly lead to technology development, diffusion, and transfer (Araya, 2002 ). One example is Novo Nordisk, a Danish pharmaceutical company, which opened a joint venture in China and used the latest technology to treat the plant’s wastewater (Eriksen & Hansen, 1999 ).

In addition to such firm-level technology transfer, it is argued that there can also be a spillover effect. In general, technology spillovers can occur via human capital upgrading and employment turnover; increased competition forcing local firms to become more efficient; and supply chain requirements as well as imitation of technology by local firms (Birdshall & Wheeler, 1993 ; Chudnovsky & Lopez, 2003 ). Moreover, foreign firms that invest in developing countries are usually large and have more resources available for research and development as well as for environmental management systems. As local firms in developing countries are mostly reliant on learning and copying from more advanced firms, they might be compelled to adopt the more stringent environmental practices of those advanced firms (Zarsky, 1999 , p. 8). However, it is also possible that foreign firms adapt to the local context, implying that the environmental standards might ultimately be below those in their home country. Evidence on the diffusion of technologies by MNCs has so far been mixed (Chudnovsky & Lopez, 2003 ).

Finally, the composition effect holds that FDI is supposed to lead to a more efficient allocation of resources among economies. That is, the production of goods will take place with lower capital per unit of output and lower input than without economic liberalization, which would imply a positive effect of both FDI and trade. However, whether this composition effect is indeed ultimately positive for the environment will depend also on the particular situation of a country (e.g., whether the investment implies a change from the first (agrarian, resource extraction) to the second (manufacturing) or to the third (services) sector) (Araya, 2002 ).

The most debated effect of trade and FDI on environmental quality is exactly this composition effect. An important consequence of trade and FDI is that they allow each country to specialize in those activities in which they have a comparative advantage, that is, activities that they perform relatively well (Caves, Frankel, & Jones, 2002 ; Cole, 2004 ). Whether this change in the allocation or composition of industry will bring about an increase (decrease) in pollution depends on whether a particular country has a comparative advantage in a more (less) polluting industry (Cole, 2004 ). However, the literature provides two competing approaches for determining comparative advantage: the factor endowment theory (FET) and the pollution haven hypothesis (PHH).

On the one hand, standard trade theory (i.e., the Hecksher-Ohlin model) asserts that trade leads to more production of goods that are intensive in that factor that is relatively abundant in the country concerned. If the comparative advantage derives from the distribution of world endowments of factors of production, 4 countries where capital is relatively abundant will export capital-intensive goods (Rogowski, 2006 ). For developing countries, this would imply a specialization in labor-intensive industries. Since polluting industries, such as chemicals, pulp and paper, or oil refining industries tend to be capital intensive, this would imply that they should remain located in industrialized countries (Antweiler et al., 2001 ; Nordstroem & Vaughan, 1999 ). Consequently, standard trade theory would predict that an increase in trade leads to a reduction of pollution in developing countries since their comparative advantage lies in labor intensive and thus less pollution-intensive production.

The pollution haven hypothesis (PHH), on the contrary, holds that because of their usually rather low levels of environmental regulation, developing countries have a comparative advantage in pollution-intensive production (Copeland & Taylor, 1994 ; Dasgupta & Mäler, 1995 ; see also Taylor, 2005 ). Therefore, due to the composition or allocation effect of FDI, more polluting industries would tend to settle in those countries that have laxer environmental regulations (Hoffmann, Lee, Ramasamy, & Yeung, 2005 ; Jaffe, Peterson, Portney, & Stavins, 1995 ; Stafford, 2000 ). Consequently, it is argued that the effect of trade and FDI on pollution may only be positive for countries with stricter environmental regulations, which will most likely be higher-income countries. Some authors even claim that the threat of polluting industries locating in countries with laxer environmental regulations will lead to a competition between countries to offer those industries a better production environment and therefore to a regulatory race to the bottom (Drezner, 2001 ; Revesz, 1992 ). We discuss this latter argument in the next section.

In contrast, several studies argue that along with trade and foreign direct investment, newer and cleaner technologies tend to spread since firms from industrialized countries possess better and usually also greener technology (Eskeland & Harrison, 2003 ), leading to a pollution halo instead of a pollution haven effect. 5 In this view “the best way to diffuse best practice production techniques” (Zarsky, 1999 , p. 5) is via FDI (see also Gallagher & Zarsky, 2007 ; Prakash & Potoski, 2006a , 2007 ).

Despite these rather clear-cut theoretical arguments, empirical studies testing the pollution haven and pollution halo hypotheses and trying to estimate the impact of FDI on the environment have not yet delivered conclusive results. For instance, while some studies find, albeit modest, support for the pollution haven hypothesis with its negative consequences on the environment (e.g., Aklin, 2016 ; Cole & Elliott, 2003 ; He, 2006 ; Hoffmann et al., 2005 ; Kleemann & Abdulai, 2013 ; Koubi, Böhmelt, & Bernauer, 2015 ; Mani & Wheeler, 1998 ; Xing & Kolstad, 2002 ), others fail to do so and tend to support the concept of pollution halos in explaining a beneficial impact of FDI on the environment (e.g., Elliott & Shimamoto, 2008 ; Eskeland & Harrison, 2003 ; Kearsley & Riddel, 2010 ; Kellenberg, 2009 ; Potoski, 2006a , b ; Wheeler, 2001 ; Zeng & Eastin, 2007 ). 6 Yet others find no effect (Javorsik & Wei, 2004 ; Spilker, 2013 ), find support for both arguments (Kim & Adilov, 2012 ), or point to conditional effects (Lan, Kakinaka, & Huang, 2012 ; Manderson & Kneller, 2012 ). For instance, Lan and colleagues ( 2012 ), using data on Chinese provinces and conditioning the relationship between FDI and pollution on human capital levels, show that the pollution haven hypothesis holds only in provinces with low human capital, whereas FDI is associated with less pollution in provinces with the higher levels of human capital, due to a “technology effect.”

Concerning evidence on the production plant level, many studies show that foreign-owned plants are usually less pollution intensive and use greener technology than domestic plants in developing countries (Blackman & Wu, 1999 ; Eskeland & Harrison, 2003 ; Gentry, 1998 ; Ivarsson & Alvstam, 2005 ; Li & Yeung, 1999 ). In contrast, using survey evidence from Mexico, Dasgupta and colleagues ( 1998a , p. 17) find that foreign investment has no separate effect on environmental effort. They measure environmental effort by the adoption of ISO 14000 type procedures for pollution management, and by the use of plant personnel for environmental inspection and control. Hettige, Huq, Pargal, and Wheeler ( 1996 ) provide a summary of three studies from Asia that also do not find significant influence of FDI on firm-level environmental performance after controlling for firm size and the age of the plant. This means that larger and newer firms, whether they are foreign or not, are usually greener. In addition, these studies find that it is not ownership structures that matter, but rather regulation and community pressure. “Apparently, richer and more educated communities are able to bargain effectively with firms” (Zarsky, 1999 , p. 14) to pressure them to introduce higher environmental standards.

These heterogeneous results suggest that the influence of trade and FDI on the environment is likely to depend, among other things, on (i) differences in technology between industrial and developing countries (Dean, Lovely, & Wang, 2009 ) and the human capital necessary to reap the technological benefits (Lan et al., 2012 ); (ii) the stringency level of environmental regulations (Ben Kheder & Zugravu, 2012 ); (iii) well-defined property rights and functioning political institutions (Jayadevappa & Chhatre, 2000 ; Spilker, 2013 ); (iv) corruption levels in the host country 7 (Cole, Elliott, & Fredriksson, 2006 ); and (v) the pollution intensity of multinationals (Manderson & Kneller, 2012 ).

An additional reason for why in most studies no pollution haven effects have been found is that abatement costs are small compared to other production costs, such as investments in infrastructure (Jaffe et al., 1995 ). This would imply that the reason for why studies do not find pollution haven effects is not because abatement costs are too low in developing countries but because they are too low in industrialized countries, implying that firms do not need to fully internalize the environmental costs they are causing (Zarsky, 1999 ). A further reason seems to be that firms are afraid of negative reputation effects if they violate environmental norms (Dasgupta et al., 1998 ).

Economic Globalization (Trade/FDI) and Environmental Regulation/Standards

Economic globalization also affects the environment via its effects on national regulation and standards. The theoretical literature postulates again different pathways through which economic globalization affects environmental regulation, and again some of them are positive and some negative for the environment.

“Race to the Bottom”

Several scholars argue that increased competition between companies induced by economic liberalization may cause a “race to the bottom” in environmental standards, because countries may weaken their environmental policies in order to (i) protect their industry from international competition (e.g., Esty & Geradin 1998 ; Prakash & Potoski, 2006a , b ); or (ii) to attract foreign firms and foreign direct investment based on low costs of environmental protection, which operate in a similar fashion as low labor costs (e.g., Copeland & Taylor, 2004 ; Sheldon, 2006 ). Hence, the expectation is that developed countries will refrain from adopting more stringent environmental regulations and might even weaken existing standards due to competition with countries that have laxer environmental standards. Conversely, less-developed countries will adopt laxer environmental standards in order to attract multinational corporations and export pollution-intensive goods (Esty & Geradin, 1998 ).

While various studies seek to provide empirical evidence on the nature and impact of these linkages, there is actually rather little evidence that countries lower their environmental standards in order to remain competitive (Grey & Brack, 2002 ; Wheeler, 2001 ). Recent exceptions are Cao and Prakash ( 2010 ) and Andonova, Mansfield, & Milner ( 2007 ). In particular, Cao and Prakash ( 2010 ) show that trade competition between countries that export similar products to the same countries results in both countries having higher air pollution, as measured by SO2 emissions. Similarly, Andonova and colleagues ( 2007 ) report that increasing trade openness in post-Communist countries is connected with laxer environmental regulation. These findings provide some of the rare evidence in favor of a race to the bottom (or at least a regulatory chill) argument.

Overall, however, it seems that multinational firms’ location decisions are determined more by other factors, such as labor costs, natural resources endowments, taxes, transportation, and market access, rather than the stringency of local environmental regulations (Drezner, 2001 ; Grey & Brack, 2002 ; Jaffe et al., 1995 ; Potoski, 2001 ). Yet, there is some anecdotal evidence with regard to the regulation of energy and taxation that favors the regulatory chill hypothesis, which states that countries abstain from tightening their environmental standards in order to stay competitive (Neumayer, 2001 ).

“Race to the Top”

The “race-to-the-top” argument, in contrast to the “race-to-the bottom” argument, suggests that economic liberalization induces an international improvement of environmental standards and, in turn, has a positive effect on the environment (e.g., Porter & van der Linde, 1995 ). For instance, Zeng and Eastin ( 2007 ) argue that in order to maintain access to foreign markets in developed countries, exporting firms in developing countries often fulfill the stricter environmental standards of those export destinations. In addition, fearing a potential dispute in the WTO, those firms tend to comply ex ante with stricter environmental standards. The “race-to-the-top” effect is often called the “California Effect,” after the example of California, which introduced stricter car emission controls than mandated by the U.S. Clean Air Act (Vogel, 1997 ). In 1990 , the Californian standard even became the national standard, thus serving as the most prominent example of a race to the top.

This argumentation is in line with the so-called Porter hypothesis, which states that a country can benefit from stricter environmental regulations because those foster innovation and efficiency and therefore improve competitiveness (Porter, 1990 ). Vogel ( 2000 ) reports another country example, namely, Israel: In order to be able to export to the EU market, Israel introduced EU pesticides standards. This evidence in favor of the California effect is further supported by several studies (Bernauer & Caduff, 2004 ; Christmann & Taylor, 2001 ; Prakash & Potoski, 2006a , b ; 2017 ; Zeng & Eastin, 2011 ). However, Vogel ( 2000 ) cautions against too much optimism since the California effect may only take place in very narrow circumstances, for example, if a country is aiming to enter into a trade agreement with the European Union or other industrialized countries. In addition, this effect seems to hold predominantly for products (e.g., cars that have a catalytic converter), and not for production processes (Bernauer & Caduff, 2004 ). Furthermore, there exists only weak evidence that environmental regulations actually stimulate innovation (Ambec & Barla, 2006 ).

Overall, the literature therefore suggests that while statements of a “race to the bottom” in environmental standards are largely exaggerated, hopes of a “race to the top” in environmental standards triggered by economic competition are also likely to be too optimistic.

Political Globalization and the Environment

As mentioned in the introduction, in addition to trade and FDI, the recent literature on IPE and the environment more recently also examines how international organizations (IOs) may affect environmental policy and environmental outcomes. Some studies analyze how country membership in IOs as a whole affects the quality of any given country’s environment (Bernauer, Kalbhenn, Koubi, & Spilker, 2010 ; Spilker, 2012 ; Ward, 2006 ). Other studies focus more on specific organizations, such as the World Trade Organization (WTO), and evaluate, for instance, whether in trade disputes over environmental standards economic or environmental concerns tend to prevail.

IOs and the Environment

The existing literature hypothesizes that memberships in IOs tend to improve both environmental performance and the likelihood of joining international environmental treaties (Bernauer et al., 2010 ; Spilker, 2012 , 2013 ; Ward, 2006 ). With regard to environmental treaty ratification, Bernauer and colleagues ( 2010 ) provide evidence that countries that are already part of a larger network of IOs also behave more cooperatively when it comes to environmental treaty ratification. Since IOs tend to discourage environmentally damaging behavior, allow for mediation and problem solving, the sharing of information and the generation of norms and trust, countries that are members to more general IOs tend to join more environmental treaties. Spilker and Koubi ( 2016 ), on the other hand, show that IO membership does not affect treaty ratification.

With regard to environmental outcomes, Ward ( 2006 ) examines whether countries that are more central to the network of international environmental regimes act more sustainably at the national level. Using social network analysis, he finds that countries that are more central also care more about domestic environmental quality. Moreover, it seems that membership in IOs affects the capability of developing countries to improve their environmental performance by allowing for information and technology transfer. This channel of influence is especially important since developing countries often lack the necessary resources and technologies to mitigate environmental degradation (Dasgupta et al., 2002 ; Porter, Brown, & Chasek, 2000 ). This view is supported by Spilker ( 2012 , 2013 ) who argues that membership in IOs can improve the environmental performance of developing countries, by linking different issues, promoting the general idea of environmental sustainability, and providing a channel through which these countries receive technology and resources necessary to reduce pollution. Examples of IOs that spread information and technology that also benefit the environment include, for instance, the World Bank, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and the World Health Organization (WHO). For example, the World Bank as part of its general “greening” strategy created the Global Environment Facility (GEF), which provides mainly developing countries with grants and technical assistance to address environmental problems such as climate change, ozone depletion, biodiversity loss, and air and water pollution (El-Ashry, 1993 ).

World Trade Organization

One of these organizations, the World Trade Organization (WTO), has received particularly strong attention in the context of the trade–environment debate. This is due to two reasons. First, some environmental regulations of WTO member countries have been challenged via the WTO dispute settlement mechanism (DSM) because of their trade inhibiting effects. Second, the literature has focused on whether environmental disputes in the WTO are as such more difficult to settle relative to other disputes, for example, disputes over tariff barriers or subsidies.

The WTO and its predecessor, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), have been established to promote trade liberalization between member countries. It is based among other things on the principle of “national treatment.” This implies that WTO member countries are not allowed to discriminate against other member countries’ products based on their national origin. However, some exceptions to this general rule exist, which are important for the environmental context, as member countries can justify trade barriers with reference to a variety of public policy-based concerns (Kelemen, 2001 ; Kelly, 2003 ). In particular, trade restrictions, as long as they do not represent arbitrary or unjustifiable discrimination and are thus disguised trade barriers, can be justified with reference to the protection of human, animal, or plant life and health (GATT Article XX[b]) and the conservation of exhaustible natural resources (GATT Article XX[g]).

Over the course of its existence, the DSM of the GATT/WTO has had to deal with a number of trade disputes over environmental issues. In the first of a series of important environment–trade disputes, Tuna-Dolphin I , Mexico challenged a U.S. tuna import ban that was motivated by U.S. regulation to prevent the killing of dolphins in the context of tuna fishing. This dispute differed from previous GATT disputes on several accounts (Kelemen, 2001 ). It was the first dispute in which the defendant country, in this case the United States, tried to protect a species globally, and not a domestic resource. Furthermore, the United States intended to influence another country’s environmental policy, in this case the use of dolphin-safe fishing nets. Also, there was much public attention. The dispute panel ruled in favor of Mexico, stating that the U.S. trade embargo was unjustified because (i) the regulation aimed at production processes, and not at a product; and (ii) the regulation intended to change another country’s regulations (Kelemen, 2001 ).

While most trade–environment disputes that followed Tuna-Dolphin I were also ruled in favor of trade liberalization, the GATT and the WTO DSM is thought to have become more “environmental friendly” over time (Kelemen, 2001 ; Kelly, 2003 ; Young, 2005 ). For example, in Tuna-Dolphin II , which was initiated only one year after Tuna- Dolphin I , the dispute panel slightly changed the direction of the first dispute ruling by stating that trade barriers can be justified in terms of trying to influence another country’s environmental regulation if they are based on an international environmental agreement. In one of the following environment–trade disputes, Shrimp-Turtle , which was similar to the Tuna-Dolphin disputes, the WTO DSM again issued a general pro-trade liberalization ruling, but introduced further pro-environment principles (Kelemen, 2001 ; Kelly, 2003 ). First, the panel upheld the idea, already put forward in Tuna-Dolphin II , that a country can use trade restrictions to protect an environmental resource outside its borders. Second, the panel ruled that not only environmental regulation based on product standards can be the basis of trade restrictions but also regulation aiming at production processes. And third, the panel allowed the submission of reports by non-governmental actors, such as NGOs and business groups. Hence, if designed properly, that is, by not discriminating between different WTO member states, countries do in principle have some room to maneuver in setting up or maintaining environmental policies that do have, simultaneously, trade-restricting effects.

In addition to these purely environmental disputes, the WTO DSM ruled on several disputes relating to sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures, that is, on issues related to human, plant and animal health (Kelly, 2003 ). In the context of the SPS agreement of the WTO, the WTO allows trade restrictions if they are based on a scientific risk assessment (Bernauer, 2003 ; Kelly, 2003 ). Only one of these disputes, Asbestos , has so far been ruled in favor of the defendant country, in that case France. More precisely, the environmental measure, a ban on the import of asbestos, was upheld. In all other disputes, for example, Canada v. Australia on Salmon , the United States v. Japan on Agricultural Products , and the United States v. the EU on Beef-Hormones and on Genetically Modified Crops , the panel ruled against the defendant and thus the environmental measure because of issues relating to risk assessment. In probably the most famous of these cases, Beef-Hormones , the panel criticized that the EU’s ban on hormone-treated beef lacked a scientific basis (Bernauer, 2003 ; Kelly, 2003 ).

Overall, it appears that free trade does not consistently trump the environment in WTO disputes, as many critics like to point out. Studies on trade–environment disputes in the European Court of Justice (ECJ) have arrived at similar findings (e.g., Kelemen, 2001 ). While critics are right in the sense that many trade–environment disputes have been ruled in favor of trade liberalization, the WTO DSM has established more stringent trade–environmental principles over time. As long as environmental measures do not “arbitrarily or unjustifiably discriminate between producers operating under similar conditions or constitute disguised restrictions on trade” (Kelly, 2003 , p. 136), the WTO and also the ECJ tend to regard them as legitimate, even if they implicate trade barriers.

Furthermore, in contrast to what critics of the WTO often point out, disputes on environmental issues are clearly a minority of all disputes (Kelly, 2003 ; Sattler & Bernauer, 2011 ; Young, 2005 ). As shown by Bernauer and Sattler ( 2006 ), these environmental disputes are even less likely than other disputes to escalate from the first dispute process step, consultation between the disputing parties, to the second dispute process step, the official panel proceeding. However, once these disputes escalate to the panel stage they are less likely to be settled successfully than other types of disputes.

Globalization and the Environment: The Micro Level

In this section we discuss the most recent strand of the IPE and environment literature dealing with the micro level, that is, how citizens evaluate economic openness in light of potential environmental concerns. This literature is relevant in our context here because public opinion is an important factor in policy making, and because the tension between globalization and the environment manifests itself not only at the macroscopic scale (e.g., in the WTO, government regulation, or environmental conditions), but also at the level of the individual citizen. The fact that public pressure has led governments to include environmental clauses in most of the recent preferential trade agreements is one obvious expression of this.

While the literature discussed so far focuses on the implications of trade for the environment, the micro-level literature turns this focus around and asks to what extent environmental concerns matter when citizens form preferences about globalization. There is a plethora of studies on individual-level trade attitudes (Baker, 2003 , 2005 ; Beaulieu, 2002 ; Fordham & Kleinberg, 2012 ; Hainmueller & Hiscox, 2006 ; Mansfield & Mutz, 2009 ; Mayda & Rodrik, 2005 ; O’Rourke & Sinnott, 2001 ; Schaffer & Spilker, 2016 ; Scheve & Slaughter, 2001 ; Spilker, Schaffer, & Bernauer, 2012 ). However, only recently have scholars begun to examine how environmental concerns may shape preferences (public opinion) concerning international trade or economic globalization more broadly.

Bechtel, Bernauer, and Meyer ( 2012 ) argue that the environmental consequences of intensified international economic exchange are, for many individuals in industrialized countries, an important element in their evaluation of trade policies. The authors contend that especially individuals with strong pro-environmental attitudes are likely to associate trade liberalization with increased environmental degradation and hence are less supportive of free trade. Their findings, relying on survey data from Switzerland, are in line with this expectation: individuals with greener attitudes tend to be less supportive of economic globalization.

Bernauer and Nguyen ( 2015 ) build on this earlier work in their study on environmental attitudes and trade preferences in developing countries. Relying on a combination of new survey data and survey experiments in Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and Vietnam, they show that the implications of post-material value arguments (Franzen & Meyer, 2010 ; Inglehart, 1995 , 1997 ) do not seem to hold for those countries. Despite low-income levels, citizens in developing countries appear to care about negative effects of free trade on the environment. 8 Interestingly, however, in contrast to the respondents in the Swiss study by Bechtel et al. ( 2012 ), environmental concerns of citizens in the developing countries under study do not translate into reduced support for free trade. 9

These findings are supported by two other recent studies on trade preferences in developing countries. Using conjoint experiments to understand how citizens evaluate different aspects of preferential trade agreements and the involved partner countries, Spilker, Bernauer, and Umaña ( 2016a , b ) show that people prefer trade agreements including environmental provisions and trade partner countries with higher environmental standards. That is, in contrast to expectations based on post-material value arguments, citizens in developing countries tend to support environmental protection; and, in contrast to their industrialized counterparts, they do not seem to view environmental protection as conflicting with trade liberalization.

This review of existing research on the globalization–environment nexus shows that we have come a long way in understanding, both theoretically and empirically, the mechanisms that link, both indirectly and directly, different facets of globalization to environmental policy and environmental outcomes at national and international levels. It also reveals that the relationship between globalization and the environment cannot be adequately understood without considering the simultaneously occurring trends and underlying mechanisms that operate through changes in economic growth; the scale, composition and technique effects of economic globalization; as well as political globalization and public opinion.

The general picture emerging from this research defies simplistic statements in contemporary public debates on the globalization–environment nexus, notably those arguing in unqualified form that globalization is good or bad for the environment. Counter to optimistic claims that economic globalization increases welfare, which according to the EKC logic then quasi-automatically results in better environmental protection, both theoretical and empirical findings clearly point to environmental damage resulting from economic openness. Yet, counter to pessimistic claims associated with a race-to-the-bottom logic and pollution havens, the scientific literature on the trade–environment nexus has come up with convincing theoretical and empirical findings that point to conditions under which environmental damage resulting from economic globalization can be minimized. The most important antidotes in this regard seem to emanate from trading-up effects, Porter-hypothesis effects, entanglement of countries in international organizations, and also domestic-level factors such as public demand for minimizing environmental damage from economic openness and development. Table 1 provides an overview of all empirical studies discussed in this article. It also provides details on the variables used, the sample and estimation procedures, as well as a short overview of the results of each study.

Table 1: Overview of Empirical Studies

BOD: Biological Oxygen Demand

CO: Carbon Monoxide

CO 2 : Carbon Dioxide

MEA: Multilateral Environmental Agreement

OLS: Ordinary Least Squares

PC: per capita

PHH: Pollution Haven Hypothesis

PM: Particulate Matter

SO 2 : Sulfur Dioxide

SPM: Suspended Particulate Matter

If not otherwise specified trade openness is measured as the sum of imports and exports divided by GDP

Further research could focus on several issues. First, the existing literature is somewhat stronger with respect to the economic mechanisms connecting economic openness and environmental protection than with respect to political mechanisms. In particular, it would be worthwhile to explore in greater detail the implications of international organizations, formal and informal international political networks, as well as international policy diffusion for domestic-level environmental protection and environmental quality.

Second, much more research at the firm and plant level is needed, notably in view of the fact that the proportion of international trade that is intrafirm trade has increased very strongly. Such research should be systematically linked to a consumption-based approach to measuring and explaining environmentally damaging human activity.

Finally, on the presumption that public opinion is an important driver of policy, there is a need for more research on how citizens relate various facets of globalization with environmental quality, and what conclusions they draw from this with respect to their preferences for particular economic and environmental policies.

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1. The Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) owes its name to Simon Kuznets ( 1955 ), who first proposed an inverted U-shaped relationship between the level of income and income inequality.

2. The income elasticity of environmental quality demand means that after a particular level of income has been reached, the willingness to pay for a clean environment rises by a greater proportion than income. Consequently, when a country achieves a sufficiently high standard of living, the expectation is that people attach increasing value to environmental amenities; that is, the environment is no longer a luxury public good.

3. Copeland and Taylor ( 2004 ) provide a critical review of the theoretical and empirical work on the relationship between trade, economic growth, and the environment.

4. A comparative advantage could also derive from endowments of natural resources. In this case, a country with abundant natural resources, say oil or forests, will most likely export them, and thus trade is likely to damage the environment.

5. In addition to FDI, (Chudnovsky & Lopez, 2003 ) list three other mechanisms through which technology can be diffused to developing countries via Multinational Corporations (MNCs): joint ventures, purchase of technology by firms in developing countries in contractual form (e.g. patents or licensing), and reverse engineering, imitation, or copying.

6. Levinson ( 2009 , 2010 ) reports that for the United States over the past 30 years, there has been no significant offshoring of pollution via more importing of polluting goods.

7. For example, Damania and colleagues ( 2003 ) and Welsch ( 2004 ) report that corruption can cause environmental degradation by reducing the effectiveness of environmental regulations.

8. The finding that economic affluence and environmental concern are positively correlated is also questioned by various other studies (e.g., Brechin, 1999 ; Dunlap & York, 2008 ; Hao, 2016 ; Jorgenson & Givens, 2014 ).

9. The very few studies evaluating how economic globalization affects individual environmental concerns, in contrast, show that individuals living in more economically globalized countries (measured by exports as percent of GDP) show less environmental concern than individuals living in less globalized countries (Hao, 2016 ; Jorgenson & Givens, 2014 ). However, these results should be interpreted with some caution for at least two reasons. First, these studies rely on purely correlational, that is, nonexperimental, research designs, which can be problematic in the study of attitude formation since one can hardly identify causal mechanisms. And second, these studies only look at countrywide globalization and its effect on individual attitudes, thereby treating the effect of globalization within one country as constant for all individuals. However, individual-level assessment of globalization and thus its influence on environmental concern might strongly depend on individual level characteristics.

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• Published: 24 April 2018

Assessing the relative contribution of economic, political and environmental factors on past conflict and the displacement of people in East Africa

• Erin Llwyd Owain 1 &
• Mark Andrew Maslin   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-9957-3463 1  

Palgrave Communications volume  4 , Article number:  47 ( 2018 ) Cite this article

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According to the UN Refugee Agency in 2016 there were over 20 million displaced people in Africa. There is considerable debate whether climate change will exacerbate this situation in the future by increasing conflict and thus displacement of people. To explore this climate-conflict-refugee nexus this study analyses whether climatic changes between 1963 and 2014 impacted the risk of conflict and displacement of people in East Africa. A new composite conflict database recording major episodes of political violence (MEPV) was compared with climatic, economic and political indicators using optimisation regression modelling. This study found that climate variations as recorded by the Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI) and the global temperature record did not significantly impact the level of regional conflict or the number of total displaced people (TDP). The major driving forces on the level of conflict were population growth, economic growth and the relative stability of the political regimes. Numbers of TDP seemed to be linked to population and economic growth. Within TDP, ‘refugees’ were recorded as people that were forced to cross borders between countries. In contrast to TDP and conflict, variations in refugee numbers were found to be significantly related to climatic variations as well as political stability, population and economic growth. This study suggests that climate variations played little or no part in the causation of conflict and displacement of people in East Africa over the last 50 years. Instead, we suggest rapid population growth, low or falling economic growth and political instability during the post-colonial transition were the more important controls. Nonetheless, during this period this study does shows that severe droughts were a contributing driver of refugees crossing international borders. This study demonstrates that within socially and geo-politically fragile systems, climate change may potentially exacerbate the situation particularly with regards to enforced migration.

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Introduction.

The total number of displaced people fleeing conflict worldwide in 2016 reached an all-time high of 65.6 million, this is four times higher than recorded a decade earlier (UNHCR, 2017 ). The majority of these displaced people were fleeing the on-going conflicts in Syria, Afghanistan and Somalia. Recent work has linked the onset of the Syrian civil war to climate change via the intense three-year drought proceeding the war (Gleick, 2014 ). This link between climate change and conflict has been explored further (e.g., Hsiang and Burke, 2014 ; Hendrix and Salehyan, 2012 ; Raleigh and Kniveton, 2012 ), with one study suggesting the strongest link occurs in ethnically fractionalized countries (Schleussner et al., 2016 ). With long-term mean temperature changes, it has been suggested that conflict will increase by 54% across sub-Saharan Africa by 2030 (Burke et al., 2009 ). Specific episodes of conflict have even been labelled as ‘climate-driven conflicts’, with the former UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in 2007 describing the on-going war in Darfur as one of the ‘first climate wars’ (Ki-moon, 2007 ). Further to this, there has been a marked rise in key terms used by the media including the use of ‘climate refugees’ and ‘environmental migrants’ to describe people fleeing their homes from climate-driven conflict (Climate Refugee, 2010 ). The aforementioned assumptions suggest a mono-causal narrative wherein conflict is driven solely by climatic changes. This political stance pre-empts academic research that concludes that there is no consensus whether or not climate change is a significant driver of conflict or migration (e.g., Gleditsch, 2012 ; Bernauer et al., 2012 ; Hsiang and Burke, 2014 ; Buhaug et al., 2014 ; Adger et al., 2014 ; Fisk, 2015 ; Burrows and Kinney, 2016 ).

Other studies suggest alternative environmental drivers of conflict, which include resource scarcity (e.g., Barnett and Adger, 2007 ), freshwater resources (Hendrix and Glaser, 2007 ), soil degradation (Dixon, 2009 ), flooding (Hauge and Ellingsen, 2001 ) and weather-driven agricultural and food shocks (Wischnath and Buhaug, 2014 ). Such studies have widely been criticised as they fail to consider other factors and multi-pathway relationships (e.g., Johnson, 2003 ). Other studies stress that economic and social factors such as population size (Raleigh and Hegre, 2009 ), population growth (Homer-Dixon, 1999 ), economic development (cf. Blattman and Miguel, 2010 ; Hegre and Sambanis, 2006 ; Miguel et al., 2004 ; Slettebak, 2012 ) and political regime operating in a country (cf. Payne, 1995 ; Sen, 1999 ; Collier and Hoeffler, 2004 ; Gleditsch et al., 2009 ) play a fundamental part in causing conflict. Furthermore, it has been suggested that such factors may contribute to creating a fragile system, which can be exacerbated by climate change to cause conflict (De Châtel, 2014 ; Buhaug, 2015 ).

East Africa

According to the IPCC (Boko et al., 2007 ; Fields et al., 2014 ), Africa is one of the most vulnerable continents to the impacts of climate change. East Africa is predicted to experience increased unpredictability and intensity of rainfall and an overall increase in annual average rainfall of between 5 and 50 mm per decade (Boko et al., 2007 ). Throughout East Africa, recent economic development has been concentrated in the agricultural sector which in some countries accounts for more than 50% of gross domestic product (GDP) (Boko et al., 2007 ); a sector which is highly climate-sensitive. It is claimed that declining rainfall in Africa during the last century, may have reduced African GDP by 15–40% compared with the rest of the developing world (Barrios et al., 2010 ). East Africa has a long history of conflict and geopolitical struggles which persist in some countries to this day, for examples the civil wars in Sudan and Somalia. The IPCC suggests that East Africa’s situation is aggravated by the interaction of ‘multiple stresses’ which generate low adaptive capacity and high vulnerability to climate change (Fields et al., 2014 ). Conflict exacerbates this, as the poor and marginalised are neither provided basic services nor protected from conflict.

The literature exploring the climate-conflict link across East Africa is sparse relative to other regions and has come to contradictory conclusions. Of the studies that have been undertaken, some argue that drought and water insecurity are linked to increased social competition in East Africa (Meier et al., 2007 ; von Uexkull et al., 2016 ), while others have suggested that conflict increases during wetter than average periods (Adano et al., 2012 ), drier conditions (Detges, 2016 ; Fjelde and von Uexkull, 2012 ; von Uexkull, 2014 ), colder conditions (Iyigun et al., 2017 ), warmer conditions (O’Loughlin et al., 2012 , 2014 ) or extreme deviations in either direction (Lecoutere et al., 2010 ; Raleigh and Kniveton, 2012 ; Ide et al., 2014 ). It has also been suggested that socio-economic and political factors have a greater effect on conflict than climatic factors (Buhaug et al., 2015 ). To try and assess whether climatic changes have an influence on the stability of East African societies, we have focused on 10 countries within the region (Fig. 1 ) and have collated and analysed social, economic and climate data covering the last 51 years.

Map of East Africa showing the countries that are included in this study

Conflict data collation

Reviewing the most common conflict databases currently used within the climate-conflict research raises concerns (Eck, 2012 ) and this has led us to explore and use a newly developed conflict database. The UCDP/PRIO armed conflict dataset is extensively used (e.g., Sundberg et al., 2012 ) as its dataset has a long temporal resolution spanning 1946–2014, however, the dataset is restricted by a limited number of conflict variables and useful units limiting the use of extensive statistical analysis for more quantitative research. The Social Conflict Analysis Database (Salehyan et al., 2012 ) accounts for the previously stated inadequacy as it includes numerous variables of conflict, including episodes of protests, riots, and other incidences of social unrests on the basis of ‘number of deaths per episode’. However, this unit of measurement exhibits significant discrepancy and uncertainty. Greater attention has recently been placed on producing databases containing georeferenced episodes of conflict such as the UCDP Georeferenced Event Database (Sundberg and Melander, 2013 ), however, despite the increase in spatial resolution, the database only covers the period 1989–2015 and therefore fails to capture any potential long-term climatic impact which requires at least 30 years’ worth of data in order to be statistically significant. Similarly, whilst the Armed Conflict Location and Event Dataset (ACLED; Raleigh et al., 2010 ) enables research of local level factors, its dataset only covers a short timescale between 1997 and 2018 (but updated every month) and therefore this is a major limitation for studies concerned with decedal-scale changes. A dataset which does address this limitation and covers timescales from 1816–2007 is the Correlates of War (COW version 4.0) dataset (Sarkees and Wayman, 2010 ). This dataset contains an array of quantitative measurements of conflict and has been widely used within climate-conflict research. However, this dataset defines conflict with a relatively high threshold of a minimum of 1000 battle-related fatalities within a 12-month period for it to be recognised in the COW dataset. This relatively high threshold does not consider lower intensity conflict events, which probably play a significant role in smaller countries nor does it pick up multiple periods of civil disobedience and protest.

Unlike the COW dataset, a database which, to date, has not received much attention in the climate-conflict literature is the major episodes of political violence dataset (MEPV database) produced by the Centre for Systemic Peace (CSP) as part of the Integrated Network for Societal Conflict Research (Marshall, 2016a ). The datasets analysed during the current study are available in the CSP repository, http://www.systemicpeace.org/inscrdata.html . Conflict, or MEPV, can be defined as ‘the systematic and sustained use of lethal political violence that result in at least 500 directly-related fatalities over the course of the episode’ (Marshall, 2016b ). Admittedly, unlike other datasets such as ACLED, the MEPV Dataset fails to capture small-scale, low-intensity violence, however, its advantages override this. Similar to the COW dataset, the MEPV Dataset is a recently updated global dataset which records conflict on a country-by-country level for a long temporal resolution from 1946–2014; a key feature of the database is that this increases the possibility of detecting a climate signal. Numerous conflict variables are recorded including international violence, international war, international independence war, civil violence, civil war, ethnic violence, and ethnic war, all on an annual basis (Marshall, 2016c ). Episodes are designated a ‘war magnitude’ which measures the societal impact using an eleven-point scale (0–10); ranging from no conflict (magnitude 0) to ‘Extermination and Annihilation’ (magnitude 10) (full description in Marshall, 2016b ), a quantitative variable which is particularly useful for data analysis and statistical testing. A comprehensive assessment of various societal impacts including the impacts on human resources, societal networks, environmental quality, infrastructure damage and resource diversions is used to calculate the magnitude. Magnitudes are totalled to generate an overall figure on an annual basis. The main assumption of this database is that the episode location only considers those upon whose territory the political violence actually takes place therefore countries that engage in military intervention in another country are not directly affected by the violence. This study finds that the MEPV Database is a valid and reliable database since not only is all the data cross-checked with other data resources to uphold accuracy, but the ‘war magnitude’ index is a logistical scale which ensures that all magnitude scores across all episodes of conflict are consistent, comparable and globally uniform.

Displaced people data collation

The database used in this study to record displaced people is the Forcibly Displaced Populations Database, which is derived from the same research body as the conflict dataset; the Armed Conflict and Intervention Datasets (Marshall, 2016d ). The data is compiled from the United States Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI, 2016 ) and the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC, 2016, http://www.internal-displacement.org/globalreport2016/ ) and spans from 1964–2008. Data is recorded on an annual, country-level resolution, for numbers of refugees and internally displaced persons (IDP). Data is missing for years 1973, 1975 and 1979. The database is cross-checked with an extensive range of data sources including government authorities, related global databases, civil society organisations, media sources, and other sources.

Out of the twenty official East African countries according to the UN Division (Fig. 1 ), the conflict database records conflict for Burundi from 1962, Eritrea (1993), Ethiopia (1946), Kenya (1963), Mozambique (1975), Rwanda (1961), Somalia (1960), Sudan (1956), South Sudan (2009), Tanzania (1961), Uganda (1962), and Zimbabwe (1966). These countries represent substantial variation across climate systems, conflict experiences and political systems. For this study, since the timespan of data for Eritrea and South Sudan is relatively short, these countries are incorporated as Eritrea/Ethiopia and Sudan/South Sudan creating a total of ten countries (Fig. 1 ). With consideration to the time range of available data for all countries, the effects of climatic factors on the total sum of both conflict and displaced people was considered from 1963–2014 and 1964–2008, respectively for the entire region of East Africa (as a total sum of the ten countries per year) and per individual country (except Mozambique and Zimbabwe which was considered onwards from 1975 and 1966, respectively).

Climate variability data

There are many ways to measure and define climate variability (IPCC, 2013), but within the context of East Africa, effective precipitation is perceived to be the most important measurement. Many studies that explore the effects of climatic variability on conflict have used standardised precipitation index (SPI; McKee et al., 1993 ) as their climate index of choice (e.g., Hendrix and Salehyan, 2012 ). This has the drawbacks that it firstly, assumes a stationary climate, and secondly, it does not take into account other atmospheric conditions, such as temperature, which may have an equal effect on drought intensity. An alternative measure of drought or climate variability which does considers in its equations temperature and other various atmospheric conditions including wind and humidity, is the Standardised Precipitation-Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI; Vicente-Serrano et al., 2010 ). Despite the significant improvement to the equations against the former SPI, this drought intensity index was created as in 2010 and various papers (e.g., Stagge et al., 2014 ) which set out to test this index against the older SPI conclude that SPEI requires further rigorous testing before it is widely accepted as an improvement SPT. In the meantime we have used an alternative standardised index, the meteorological drought index called the Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI) which is based on a soil moisture algorithm and the water balance equation first proposed by Palmer ( 1965 ). Unlike the SPI, which requires only a single input, the PDSI index is calculated on a monthly basis using a range of inputs including precipitation, temperature and soil moisture to better represent the atmospheric conditions within the equations. The PDSI was a significant ground-breaking index when the method was first published in 1965 and even today, the method continues to uphold its reputation and continues to be widely used within the field of climate research (e.g., Heim, 2017 ; Cong et al., 2017 ; Wambua et al., 2017 ). Unlike the SPEI which is a relatively new method on the platform of climate research, the PDSI is a reliable, well researched method. The PSDI generates a standardised index, which ranges from <−4 (extreme drought) to >+4 (extremely wet). PSDI is suitable for this study since primarily, it allows the role of climate change to be explored by providing a measurement of climatic variability away from the normal conditions. Secondly, it is a standardised index, which allows for comparison between locations and years therefore providing an opportunity to place current conditions in a historical perspective. Finally, it incorporates aspects of the climate of the past month and therefore does not assume a stationary climate since it provides a spatial and temporal representation of the climate thus better representing the conditions on the ground (Alley, 1984 ). Data for the PDSI of the region of East Africa was derived from the website KNMI Climate Explorer (KNMI, 2016 ) using the self-calibrated, monthly observation dataset UCAR Palmer Drought Severity Index 1850–2014 (Dai et al., 2004 ) which was recently updated to encompass data for the year 2014. The average for the entire region of East Africa was taken.

We also included an index to represent global climate change; the global land temperature (degrees Celsius) presented as an anomaly from the average 1970–2000 and derived from the Surface Temperature Database from Goddard Institute for Space Studies (NASA, 2016 ).

Socio-economic and political variables

This study includes an analysis of six other variables that have been shown in other studies to influence conflict and migration. (1) Population size, as research suggests that larger populations can be associated with an increase in conflict (Fearon and Laitin, 2003 ). (2) Population growth (annual rate of change in %) as it has been suggested that rapid population growth could be associated with higher levels of conflict (Urdal, 2008 ). Population data are derived from the United Nations Population Division 1950–2015 (UNDP, 2017 ) for both sexes as a unit of thousand for each country between 1963 and 2014. (3) Economic development as studies suggest that there could be a negative relationship with conflict (Hegre and Sambanis, 2006 ). (4) Rate of economic growth (annual rate of change in GDP in %) as it has been associated with conflict. Economic data used is GDP per capita in US Dollars from between 1970 and 2014 and is derived from the United Nation Statistic Division (UNSD, 2016 ). (5) Political regime is included as there is evidence that highly democratic countries are associated with a decrease in conflict (Muller and Weede, 1990 ; Hegre, 2001 ). Data is taken from a database (Marshal et al., 2016a ) on the political regime characteristics of each country constructed as part of the Polity IV Project from the Centre for Systemic Peace with the unit of analysis being the index Polity2 which is a scale of political regimes from +10 (strongly democratic) to −10 (strongly autocratic) updated in 2016 (Marshall et al., 2016 b). (6) Life expectancy is included as an index for development and data is taken from The World Bank database (The World Bank Group, 2017, https://data.worldbank.org/ ).

The overall level of conflict for all 10 East African countries recorded in the MEPV Database from 1963–2014, follows an inverted ‘U’ trend (Figs. 2 and 3 ). Following the initial decade of relatively low conflict across the region, conflict gradual increases in 1981 to reach a maximum peak in 1991. This peak is followed by an overall gradual decrease until 2014. At its peak in 1991, conflict occurs in 8 out of 10 countries and decreases in all post-1991. Total sum of displaced people (TDP) is low and stable from 1964–1979, fluctuating between 160,000 and 940,000 (Figs. 2 and 3 ). This increases sharply in 1980 and 1984, coinciding well with an increase in total conflict before reaching maximum peak in 1992 at 15.5 million people. A decrease occurs after 1992, which coincides with a decrease in total conflict. In 1996, TDP increases and this coincides with an increase in interstate conflict. Interestingly, whereas conflict decreases after its peak in 1991, TDP continues to rise until 2008.

Conflict and displaced people data from East Africa since 1963

Conflict and displaced people data from East Africa broken down by country since 1963

There is a long-term trend in the PDSI between 1963–2014 (Fig. 4 ) to drier conditions. Peak drought (minimum PDSI) coincides with maximum TDP in 1992. During the same period population increased continuously from 84.5 million to nearly 360 million (UNPD, 2017 ) (Fig. 4 ). Population growth follows an inverse ‘U’ trend by increasing rapidly from 1963–1983, a decade before maximum conflict and TDP, then declining from 1983 to 2014. Economic development crudely measured by GDP per capita increases from 1970–2014 from a minimum of $185 in 1985 to $1054 by 2014 (UNSD, 2016 ). Economic growth follows an overall ‘U’ shaped trend with negative growth for years 1981–1985, 1987, 1989–1994, 1998–2001, with peak minimum negative growth rate of −7.49% in 1992 coinciding with peak in TDP and a year prior to the peak in conflict. Political stability follows a ‘U’ shaped trend, decreasing from −3 in 1963 to a minimum of −7 in 1989 before gradually increasing to an average of 2 in 2014. Life expectancy increases throughout the period from a minimum of 43 years in 1963 to 60 years in 2014, with a slight decrease from 1986 to 1993, which coincides with maximum conflict and maximum TDP.

Comparison of global temperatures and the Palmer Drought Index, with combined data for the 10 studied East African countries for population size, population growth, GDP per capital, rate of change of GDP per capita, life expectancy and political stability

The potential influences (independent variables) on conflict, TDP and refugees (dependent variables) were statistically explored both for the whole of East Africa and for each country individually. All independent variables were lagged by 1, 2, 3, 5 and 10 years to account for lag between change in independent variable and the effect on the dependent variable and statistically tested. Regression analysis was used to study the relationship between individual independent variables and conflict, TDP and refugees. Optimisation regression modelling was also used to explore which combination of independent variables best model the dependent variables. Optimisation modelling uses a stepwise regression to optimise the response variable by adding or removing independent variables based on their statistical significance (further explanation in Freedman, 2009 ). A predicted r 2 value was generated to represent the % of the variation in the dependent variable explained by the regression model. This approach avoids the problem with regular r 2 values that can increase every time you add a predictor which may lead to misleading, false or overly complex models. Though the optimal solution might be mathematically sound, it may not necessarily be theoretically sound, therefore, the outputs from the modelling are compared with the direct observation of the data and our theoretical knowledge about cause and effect in human societies.

Regression analysis for the East African regional collated data found there was no significant relationship between total conflict and PDSI ( p  = 0.887, Table 1 ). The relationship between conflict and population growth was found to be statistically significantly positive for lag1–10 ( p  = 0.000–0.014, r 2  = 12–42.2%). Economic growth and conflict was found to be statistically significantly negative for the same year ( p  = 0.000, r 2  = 30) and lag1–2 ( p  = 0.000, r 2  = 22–33.3%). Political stability with all lags was found to have a statistically significant negative relationship ( p  = 0.000–0.016, r 2  = 11.1–46%) suggesting that poor government can have a decadal effect on a society. The statistical tests were also carried out for all the independent variables against societal conflict which produced the same results to those found for total conflict. Table 2

A statistically significantly negative relationship was found between PDSI and TDP in the same year ( p  = 0.040, r 2  = 9.5) and with lag1 ( p  = 0.017, r 2  = 12.6, Table 3 ). Population growth was found to be statistically significant for the same year, lag1 and lag10 ( p  = 0.000, r 2  = 34%) however, only the lag10 was found to be theoretically sound, and likewise for politics for the same year ( p  = 0.039, r 2  = 9.5). Economic growth was found to be negatively statistically significant for the same year and lags1–10 ( p  = 0.001–0.032, r 2  = 12.1–28.1%). Statistical analysis for total refugees generated similar results with statistically significant relationship found against PDSI in the same year ( p  = 0.022, r 2  = 11.6%) and lag1 ( p  = 0.10, r 2  = 14.6), population growth lag5 and lag10, economic growth for the same year and all lags, and politics lag2–10. Similarly, statistically significant relationships found for the data on IDP were PDSI lag1 ( p  = 0.030, 10.5%), population growth lag10, economic growth lag1–10 and political state in the same year. Upon further statistical tests for each country individually, the relationship between PDSI and TDP was found to be statistically significant for 6 out of 10 countries.

The optimisation modelling (Table 3 ) suggests that about 80% of total conflict throughout this period can be explained by population growth lagged by 10 years, political stability lagged by 3 years and economic growth within the same year. Societal conflict produced similar results at nearly 85%. Climatic changes represented by PDSI and the global temperature curve were not statistically significant. These results are borne out by a visual inspection of the data, as the population growth, political stability and economic growth data all have a U-shape over the period of time in question as do the total and societal conflict data. Whereas the PDSI and global temperature data have a long-term trend with a decadal variation, neither of which is observed in the conflict data. What is of interest is the lag in the socio-political data that seems to have the most predictive ability for the conflict data. Population growth lagged by 10 years implies that it is not the initial expansion of the population that stresses society but the consequences of the population expansion which is felt a decade later as children survive to adulthood and people live longer. Political stability lagged by 3 years suggest that the effects of unstable and ineffective governmental regimes may take a few years until the regional economy and society reaches a critical point which gives rise to significant violent eruptions. This is also supported by the fact that poor economic growth lags political instability but there is no lag between economic growth and total conflict.

For TDP, optimisation modelling suggests that nearly 70% can be predicted by population growth and economic growth when both are lagged by 10 years. Despite PDSI being statistically significant in the regression analysis, in the optimisation modelling PDSI’s contribution was not significant. Similar results were found for IDP. These results are borne out by a visual inspection of the data as the population growth, economic growth data and TDP data all have a U-shape over the period of time in question Whereas the PDSI and global temperature data have a long-term trend with a decadal variation, neither of which is observed in the TDP or the IDP data. What is interesting to note is that political stability is not significant in the optimisation modelling, despite the fact that the peak of TDP and the worst period for political stability coincide around 1991. Following this trough, there is a rapid rise in political stability which coincides with a large drop in TDP and this may suggest that there is a non-linear relationship between political stability and TDP. We speculate that when political systems are extremely unstable, improvement in governmental regimes may have an indirect and disproportionate effect on forced movement of people within and between countries. As for refugees, over 90% can be explained by PDSI lagged by 1 year was significant, population growth lagged by 10 years, economic growth lagged by a year and political stability lagged by 2 years. A visual inspection of the data shows that the increase in refugees in the 1980s seem to coincide with a period of major droughts across East Africa while the subsequent decrease in the 1990s coincides with a shift to much wetter conditions shown by the PDSI. This suggests that significant climatic changes deviating away from the average to both drier or wetter conditions may directly and / or indirectly affect people significantly enough to drive them away from their homes and to cross international boundaries.

This study discusses and exposes the complexity of the climate-conflict nexus. The evidence from East Africa is that no single factor can fully explain conflict and the displacement of people. Instead, long-term population growth, short-term negative economic growth and extreme political instability seem to be primarily linked to conflict. This is in agreement with Buhaug et al., ( 2015 ) who suggested socio-political factors were more important than climate change. The displacement of people, particularly across international boundaries as refugees, in this region is also shown to be in part driven and exacerbated by intense droughts which can be in part linked to the long-term drying trend that has been ascribed to climate change (Hartmann et al., 2013 ). The question arises, however, whether drought would have exacerbated the displacement of people across international boundaries had there been slower expansion of the population, positive and rapid economic growth and more stable political regimes in the region. Hence, this study may not be a definitive test of the climate-conflict nexus as simultaneous peaks in both conflict and displaced people in the 1980s and 1990s across East Africa suggest a geopolitical and social narrative. Nonetheless, we note that while conflict has continued to decrease across the entire region following the end of the Cold War, the number of displaced people remains high. This study demonstrates that within socially and geo-politically fragile systems, climate change may potentially exacerbate the situation particularly with regards to enforced migration.

Data availability

The datasets analysed in the current study are available in the MEPV Database produced by the Centre for Systemic Peace (CSP) as part of the Integrated Network for Societal Conflict Research (INSCR), http://www.systemicpeace.org/inscrdata.html .

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Miles Irving for designing and drawing the diagrams. We would like to acknowledge funding from the Natural Environment Research Council London DTP (NE/L002485/1) and the Royal Society.

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Owain, E.L., Maslin, M.A. Assessing the relative contribution of economic, political and environmental factors on past conflict and the displacement of people in East Africa. Palgrave Commun 4 , 47 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-018-0096-6

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Political polarization and its echo chambers: Surprising new, cross-disciplinary perspectives from Princeton

Artwork by Egan Jimenez

Much like an overexploited ecosystem, the increasingly polarized political landscape in the United States — and much of the world — is experiencing a catastrophic loss of diversity that threatens the resilience not only of democracy, but also of society, according to a series of new studies that examine political polarization as a collection of complex ever-evolving systems.

Fifteen interdisciplinary teams of political scientists and complex systems theorists in the natural sciences and engineering explored how polarization is produced and influenced over time by the actions and interactions of individual voters, people in power, and various social networks. Ultimately, as social interactions and individual decisions isolate people into only a few intractable camps, the political system becomes incapable of addressing the range of issues — or formulating the variety of solutions — necessary for government to function and provide the services critical for society.

The studies were published Dec. 6 in a special issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that stemmed from a collaboration between Princeton University and Arizona State University (ASU) and includes several papers led by Princeton researchers.

“The complex systems perspective demonstrates that the loss of diversity associated with polarization undermines cooperation and the ability of societies to provide the public goods that make for a healthy society,” according to an introduction by issue editors Simon Levin , Princeton’s James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology , Helen Milner , the B.C. Forbes Professor of Public Affairs and professor of politics and international affairs at Princeton, and Charles Perrings , professor of environmental economics at ASU.

“Polarization is a dynamic process and that is what complexity theory can best help us understand,” they wrote. “As environmental and complexity scientists have shown in other contexts, diversity maintenance is critical for many systems to thrive, and often to survive at all.”

“The polarization currently being experienced both within and among nations  undercuts efforts to deal with critical issues facing societies , none more so than those related to the environment — from climate change and extreme weather, to the emergence of pandemic viruses such as COVID-19,” said Levin, who is director of the  Center for BioComplexity  based in Princeton’s  High Meadows Environmental Institute  (HMEI) and associated faculty in HMEI.

Complex adaptive systems — which are widespread in fields from physics and financial systems to natural systems driven by evolution and socioeconomic-political systems — allow scientists to understand the multiscale interactions that result in specific structures and outcomes, Levin said. At that point, efforts to mitigate negative results can be implemented more effectively.

“These systems are composed of individual agents, in which there is an interplay, and perhaps a coevolution, between the attitudes and actions of individual agents and the emergent properties of the systems to which they belong,” he said. “Similar challenges exist across these applications, involving the need for a statistical mechanics to scale from individuals to collectives, to the emergence of patterns and processes such as social norms.”

Despite the rise of partisanship, populism and polarization, these phenomena have not been thoroughly studied as dynamic systems consisting of multiple interacting components and large-scale features, Milner said.

“James Madison had hoped that the system devised in the Constitution would avoid the sorts of polarization that political parties can produce and that can undermine the workings of government,” Milner said.

“Sadly, we are seeing polarization today and a subsequent loss of diversity in the range of positions in society within the United States and globally,” she said. “The papers in this issue demonstrate from a systems perspective the forces that lead to polarization — and some of the consequences of it — with the hope that understanding them will lead to better governance.”

The studies from Princeton researchers are summarized below. The papers explored issues from how people unwittingly isolate themselves into partisan networks through social media and how to ensure successful electoral reforms using models, to how public opinion fuels extremism among political elites, as well as the potential benefits of polarization under the right circumstances.

People unwittingly polarize themselves by ditching followers considered untrustworthy 

A computational model tested with Twitter data showed that social media users may inadvertently sort themselves into polarized networks by “unfollowing” users they consider untrustworthy news sources. Princeton researchers  Andy Guess , assistant professor of politics and public affairs, Corina Tarnita , professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, and first author  Christopher Tokita , who received his Ph.D. from Princeton in 2021, found that when people are less reactive to news, their online environment remains politically mixed.

When users constantly react to and share articles from their preferred news sources, however, they are more likely to develop politically isolated networks, or what the researchers call “epistemic bubbles.” Once users are in these bubbles, they miss out on more news articles, including those from their preferred media outlets. 

“It’s not hard to find evidence of polarized discourse on social media, but we know less about the mechanisms of how social media can drive people apart,” Guess said. “Our contribution is to show that polarization of online social networks emerges naturally as people curate their feeds. Counterintuitively, this can occur even without knowing other users' partisan identities.”

Conservative swings in public opinion ramp up lawmaker extremism

While it is well-documented that Americans are not as polarized as the people they elect, a study led by  Naomi Ehrich Leonard , Princeton’s Edwin S. Wilsey Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering , and Keena Lipsitz , associate professor of political science at Queens College, CUNY, with Princeton doctoral student Anastasia Bizyaeva shows that Americans are still partly to blame for the extremism of their elected officials.  

The researchers found that over time, conservative swings in public opinion — which are typically slightly larger and more prolonged than liberal swings — exacerbate the self-reinforcement processes for Republican lawmakers, wherein legislators respond to favorable public opinion by further bolstering their own positions. They identified a tipping point beyond which the process of polarization speeds up as the forces driving it are compounded and the forces mitigating polarization are overwhelmed . They report that Republicans may have passed this critical threshold while Democrats are quickly approaching it.    

“By combining our expertise on political processes together with our expertise on feedback and nonlinearity in complex time-varying processes, we were able to make new discoveries about the mechanisms that can explain, and potentially mitigate, political polarization,” Leonard said.

“Until now, the ways in which public opinion changes over time had not been implicated in the political polarization of lawmakers,” she said. “Yet, by accounting for nonlinearity in how lawmakers respond to public opinion, we show that these differences matter significantly and small differences in public opinion swings can in fact lead to large changes in polarization. I am hopeful that the analytical tools we developed for this study will prove useful in finding ways to slow down the trend.”    

Progressive taxation could reduce economic hardships, social tensions fueling polarization

Intergroup conflict triggered by economic hardship can reduce social and economic interactions, which in turn further exacerbates economic decline and political polarization, according to a paper coauthored by Nolan McCarty , Princeton’s Susan Dod Brown Professor of Politics and Public Affairs, and  Joshua Plotkin , a professor of natural sciences at the University of Pennsylvania who received his Ph.D. from Princeton, with first author Alexander J. Stewart, senior lecturer in mathematical biology at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland.  The findings suggest that progressive taxation designed to ensure an adequate social safety net could  help prevent the economic anxieties that fuel ethnic and racial conflict.

“During the past 20 years, the United States and many other countries have experienced profound economic, social and political upheaval — including economic crises, escalating inequality, the exacerbation of racial and ethnic conflicts, and deepening political polarization,” McCarty said. “Our paper is an attempt to understand the complex dynamics that link these developments and explore ways to break the negative cycle.”

Diversity of social networks can intensify or moderate personal attitudes

The social networks to which people belong can “rewire” their personal attitudes over time to reflect the opinions of the people they’re linked to, according to a study led by former Princeton postdoctoral fellow Fernando Santos , an assistant professor at the University of Amsterdam, with Simon Levin , Princeton’s James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology , and Yphtach Lelkes , associate professor of communication at the University of Pennsylvania.

The researchers found that when people preferentially connect to people with similar opinions, they create an echo chamber that increasingly polarizes the views of everyone in the network. On the other hand, people who are part of a network consisting of a variety of viewpoints tend to moderate one another. Understanding that social networks influence polarization — rather than merely reflect it — could be crucial in developing interventions to curb polarization online and the spread of political extremism, the researchers report.

“This is a relatively new phenomenon and, like other internet and media mechanisms, has likely sped and reinforced the segmentation of our societies,” Levin said.

Polarization can benefit society when opposing sides consist of diverse populations

Polarization may actually benefit society  when opposing viewpoints each represent a variety of people and communities with shared values, according to research led by  Vitor Vasconcelos , assistant professor at the University of Amsterdam and past postdoctoral research associate at Princeton, with  Elke Weber , the Gerhard R. Andlinger Professor in  Energy and the Environment  and professor of  psychology  and the School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton associate research scholar  Sara Constantino , and  Simon Levin , Princeton’s James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor in  Ecology and Evolutionary Biology , as well as Professor  Astrid Dannenberg  and research fellow  Mar­cel Lum­kow­sky  at the University of Kassel in Germany.

Polarization becomes harmful when it segregates social networks and excludes information about the preferences of people other than close neighbors. Cooperation becomes less likely when these local networks distort or undermine the value of working  with opponents, which can result in a number of effects including the weakening of democratic processes.

“Pluralistic societies thrive when members with different values and beliefs manage to discuss these differences and leverage them to generate win-win solutions,” Weber said. “Our paper shows that collective benefits are reduced by the polarization of social networks that restrict communication and negotiation across partisan lines, not the fact that we disagree on values.”

Contrarians at the gate: How strong local attitudes can breed opposition

Local variations in political attitudes can lead to polarization, particularly after political unrest, according to research led by Olivia Chu , a Princeton graduate student in quantitative and computational biology, with coauthors Grigore Pop-Eleches , professor of politics and international affairs, and Jonathan Donges , a visiting research collaborator in HMEI from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. They deployed an adaptive voter model — which is used to study opinion dynamics — across Ukraine to determine how people’s perceptions of the European Union differed based on how people in their communities and social circles discussed revolutions, mass protests and other political shocks.

"Our research shows that rather than sweeping everyone along, the effect of revolutions on how people think about politics depends in part on the attitudes of the people with whom they talk about politics,” Pop-Eleches said. “Those who mostly talk to supporters of the revolution are likely to change their opinions in the opposite direction from those who talk to opponents. This can lead to pockets of increased polarization even in countries where most people support the goals of the revolution."

Partisan interpersonal interactions can weaken Madison’s cure for factions

A study led by Corina Tarnita , professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, and doctoral student Mari Kawakatsu in Princeton’s Program in Applied and Computational Mathematics examined how partisan interpersonal interactions can weaken processes that the framers of the US Constitution viewed as safeguards against factions and polarization. Kawakatsu and Tarnita co-authored the study with Simon Levin , Princeton’s James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology , and Yphtach Lelkes , associate professor of communication at the University of Pennsylvania.

The researchers were inspired by James Madison’s essay, “Federalist No. 10,” in which he argued that a republic mitigates the dangers of factions by fostering a diversity of political interests. But Americans today care about many more political issues than they did 75 years ago, yet polarization is worse. The authors developed a theoretical model of cultural evolution to investigate the possible role that interactions among partisan opinionated citizens play in this puzzle.

Their analysis confirmed Madison’s intuition that societal cohesion increases when individuals care about a greater diversity of issues. But there is a twist — under extreme partisanship, individuals’ openness to learning from peers with a different political ideology is diminished. This leads to greater tribalism that drastically diminishes interest diversity, which leads to high within-ideology camaraderie and heightened polarization.

But the researchers also found a silver lining: the harmful effects of extreme partisanship are only substantial when individuals are primarily relying on social peers to shape their opinions and strategies and are limited in their independent exploration. “Our model suggests that actively pursuing learning from beyond one’s social network is crucial to maintaining a cohesive society,” Tarnita said. “Although both opinion formation and cooperation are well-explored topics, we understand relatively little about the coupled dynamics of cooperation and polarization,” Kawakatsu said. “The unexpected interactions we found between partisanship, cooperation and independent exploration highlight the need to study polarization in a coupled, multi-level context.”

Complex systems theory can lead to deeper understanding, better design of lasting reforms to American democracy

The implications of democracy reforms  such as ranked-choice voting and citizen redistricting may be better understood using dynamic systems theory based in engineering and biology, according to an analysis led by  Sam Wang , professor of  neuroscience  and director of the Electoral Innovation Lab at Princeton, with political scientists  Keena Lipsitz  at the City University of New York,  Jonathan Cervas  from Carnegie Mellon University, and  Bernard Grofman  at UC Irvine.

Wang and a multi-institutional team of political scientists report that systems-based theory typically used in the sciences can help understand the myriad of interactions that lead to current weaknesses in American democracy — particularly polarized institutions, unresponsive representatives and the ability of a faction of voters to gain power at the expense of the majority. Concepts such as nonlinearities and amplification, positive and negative feedback, and integration over time can help identify problems in representation and institutional power.

Similarly, the effectiveness of any proposed reform is difficult to predict against a backdrop of complex network interactions. A mathematically rich description of how electoral mechanisms interact can maximize the impacts of reforms in the context of the politics and procedures of individual states.

"Our core objective was to translate the American political system into a mathematical complex-systems framework that fosters participation by scholars of the natural sciences,” Wang said.

“We want to encourage natural scientists to build models that reproduce political phenomena, create simulations to explore alternative scenarios, and design interventions that may improve the function of democracy,” he said. “These goals are analogous to those of engineers — to understand a system of many parts well enough to make repairs or improvements."

The special issue, “The Dynamics of Political Polarization,” was published Dec. 6 by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

B. Rose Huber in the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs, Molly Seltzer in the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment, and Molly Sharlach in Engineering Communications contributed to this story.

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Conservationism; Environmental movement; Environmental policy; Environmentalism

Environmental politics concerns the development of political institutions to solve problems of negative externalities related to the use of natural resources, which occur when costs from some activity or decision are imposed on parties outside the activity or decision.

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Environmental politics can most simply be defined as the politics of externalities. All environmental conflicts between humans, or even between humans and nonhumans, can be thought of as being produced by the existence of negative externalities. Sometimes called “spillover effects,” negative externalities occur when costs resulting from some activity or decision are imposed on parties outside of the activity or decision.

Two kinds of negative externalities can result in environmental problems. First, simple spillovers may occur when one party’s decision about the use of a natural resource immediately and...

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Ostrom E (1990) Governing the commons. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK

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Switzer, D. (2022). Politics and the Environment. In: Farazmand, A. (eds) Global Encyclopedia of Public Administration, Public Policy, and Governance. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-66252-3_2449

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POLITICAL ENVIRONMENT AND FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT INFLOW (A CASE STUDY OF INDIA)

• February 2021
• Vol. 10(Issue 38 (III) April-June 2020):44-48

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Political Science Research Paper Topics

800 Political Science Research Paper Topics

Political science is a dynamic field that offers a multitude of avenues for exploration and inquiry. Whether you are passionate about the intricacies of American politics, fascinated by global affairs, or interested in the intersection of politics with social issues, there’s a wealth of research opportunities awaiting you. This comprehensive list of political science research paper topics has been meticulously curated to help students like you find inspiration and direction for your academic endeavors. Spanning various categories, these topics encompass both foundational principles and contemporary issues, ensuring a diverse range of subjects for your research. As you navigate this extensive collection, let your intellectual curiosity guide you towards a research topic that resonates with your interests and academic goals.

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African Politics

• The Role of Youth Movements in African Politics
• Assessing the Impact of Neocolonialism on African Nations
• Conflict Resolution Strategies in African States
• Corruption and Governance Challenges in Sub-Saharan Africa
• Women’s Participation in African Political Leadership
• Comparative Analysis of Post-Colonial African Constitutions
• Environmental Policies and Sustainability in African Governments
• The African Union’s Role in Regional Stability
• Ethnic Conflict and Politics in East Africa
• Human Rights Violations and Accountability in African Nations
• The Influence of International Aid on African Politics
• Media Censorship and Press Freedom in African Nations
• Ethnicity and Identity Politics in West Africa
• Healthcare Access and Quality in African Countries
• Indigenous Governance and Rights in African Societies
• Political Economy and Resource Allocation in Oil-Producing Nations
• The Impact of Globalization on African Economies
• The Legacy of Apartheid in South African Politics
• The African Diaspora’s Influence on Homeland Politics
• Environmental Conservation and Natural Resource Management in Africa

American Politics

• The Role of Third Parties in American Elections
• Analyzing the Influence of Lobbying on U.S. Policy
• The Impact of Social Media on Political Campaigns
• Immigration Policies and the American Dream
• Gerrymandering and Its Effects on Electoral Outcomes
• The Role of the Electoral College in Presidential Elections
• Gun Control and Second Amendment Debates
• Healthcare Policy and Access in the United States
• Partisanship and Polarization in American Politics
• The History and Future of American Democracy
• Supreme Court Decisions and Their Political Implications
• Environmental Policies and Climate Change in the U.S.
• Media Bias and Political Discourse in America
• Political Conventions and Their Significance
• The Role of Super PACs in Campaign Financing
• Civil Rights Movements and Their Impact on U.S. Politics
• Trade Policy and Global Economic Relations
• National Security and Counterterrorism Strategies
• Populism and Its Influence on American Politics
• Electoral Reform and Voting Rights in the United States

Asian Politics

• China’s Belt and Road Initiative and Global Politics
• Democracy Movements in Hong Kong and Taiwan
• India’s Foreign Policy and Regional Influence
• The North Korea Nuclear Crisis
• Environmental Challenges in Southeast Asian Nations
• Ethnic Conflict and Identity Politics in South Asia
• Economic Growth and Inequality in East Asian Countries
• ASEAN’s Role in Regional Security
• Japan’s Approach to Pacifism and Defense
• Cybersecurity and Cyber Warfare in Asia
• Religious Extremism and Political Stability in the Middle East
• China-India Border Dispute and Geopolitical Implications
• South China Sea Disputes and Maritime Politics
• The Rohingya Crisis and Humanitarian Interventions
• Political Reform and Authoritarianism in Central Asia
• Technological Advancements and Political Change in Asia
• The Belt and Road Initiative and Its Impact on Asian Economies
• Environmental Conservation Efforts in Asian Nations
• Geopolitical Rivalries in the Indo-Pacific Region
• Media Censorship and Freedom of Expression in Asia
• Comparative Politics
• Comparative Analysis of Political Regimes: Democracies vs. Authoritarian States
• Theories of State Formation and Governance
• Electoral Systems Around the World
• Social Welfare Policies in Western and Non-Western Societies
• The Role of Civil Society in Political Change
• Political Parties and Their Impact on Governance
• Analyzing Political Culture in Diverse Societies
• Case Studies in Conflict Resolution and Peacebuilding
• Federal vs. Unitary Systems of Government
• Gender and Political Representation Across Countries
• Immigration Policies and Integration Strategies
• Indigenous Rights and Self-Determination Movements
• Environmental Policies and Sustainability Practices
• Populist Movements in Contemporary Politics
• The Impact of Globalization on National Identities
• Human Rights Violations and Accountability Mechanisms
• Comparative Analysis of Welfare States
• Ethnic Conflict and Power Sharing Agreements
• Religious Diversity and Its Political Implications
• Social Movements and Political Change Across Regions
• Constitutions and Constitutionalism
• The Evolution of Constitutional Law: Historical Perspectives
• Judicial Review and Constitutional Interpretation
• Federalism and State Powers in Constitutional Design
• Comparative Analysis of National Constitutions
• Human Rights Provisions in Modern Constitutions
• Constitutional Amendments and Reform Efforts
• Separation of Powers and Checks and Balances
• Constitutional Design in Post-Conflict Societies
• Constitutionalism and Indigenous Rights
• Challenges to Constitutional Democracy in the 21st Century
• Constitutions and Cultural Pluralism
• Environmental Provisions in Constitutions
• The Role of Constitutional Courts in Political Systems
• Social and Economic Rights in Constitutions
• Constitutionalism and the Rule of Law
• The Impact of Technological Advancements on Constitutional Governance
• Constitutional Protections for Minority Rights
• Constitutional Referendums and Public Participation
• Constitutional Provisions for Emergency Powers
• Gender Equality Clauses in National Constitutions
• Democracy and Democratization
• The Role of Civil Society in Democratization
• Democratic Backsliding: Causes and Consequences
• Comparative Analysis of Electoral Systems and Democracy
• The Impact of Media on Political Awareness and Democracy
• Political Parties and Their Role in Democratic Governance
• Women’s Political Participation and Representation in Democracies
• Democratic Transitions in Post-Authoritarian States
• Youth Movements and Their Influence on Democratization
• Populism and Its Effect on Democratic Norms
• Comparative Analysis of Direct vs. Representative Democracy
• Democratization and Economic Development
• Indigenous Peoples’ Rights and Democratization
• The Role of International Organizations in Promoting Democracy
• Religious Diversity and Democracy in Multiethnic Societies
• The Challenges of Democratic Consolidation
• Media Freedom and Democratization in the Digital Age
• Human Rights and Democratic Governance
• Democratization and Conflict Resolution in Divided Societies
• Civil-Military Relations in Emerging Democracies
• Assessing the Quality of Democracy in Different Countries

Political Corruption

• The Impact of Corruption on Political Stability
• Corruption and Economic Development: A Comparative Analysis
• Anti-Corruption Measures and Their Effectiveness
• Corruption in Public Procurement and Government Contracts
• Political Scandals and Their Influence on Public Opinion
• The Role of Whistleblowers in Exposing Political Corruption
• Corruption and Its Impact on Foreign Aid and Investments
• Political Patronage and Nepotism in Government
• Transparency and Accountability Mechanisms
• Corruption and Environmental Exploitation
• Cultural Factors and Perceptions of Corruption
• Corruption in Law Enforcement and the Judiciary
• The Role of Media in Investigating Political Corruption
• Corruption and Political Party Financing
• Comparative Analysis of Corruption Levels in Different Countries
• Ethnicity and Corruption: Case Studies
• Political Corruption in Post-Conflict Societies
• Gender, Power, and Corruption
• Corruption and Human Rights Violations
• Strategies for Combating Political Corruption

European Politics

• The European Union’s Role in Global Governance
• Brexit and Its Implications for European Politics
• European Integration and Supranationalism
• Euroscepticism and Anti-EU Movements
• Immigration and European Identity
• Populist Parties in European Elections
• Environmental Policies in European Countries
• The Eurozone Crisis and Economic Governance
• EU Enlargement and Eastern European Politics
• Human Rights and European Integration
• Nationalism and Secession Movements in Europe
• Security Challenges in the Baltic States
• EU-US Relations and Transatlantic Cooperation
• Energy Policies and Dependency on Russian Gas
• The Common Agricultural Policy and Farming in Europe
• European Social Welfare Models and Inequality
• The Schengen Agreement and Border Control
• The Rise of Far-Right Movements in Western Europe
• EU Environmental Regulations and Sustainability
• The Role of the European Court of Justice in Shaping European Politics
• Comparative Analysis of Federal Systems
• Fiscal Federalism and Taxation in Federal States
• Federalism and Ethnic Conflict Resolution
• The Role of Governors in Federal Systems
• Intergovernmental Relations in Federal Countries
• Federalism and Healthcare Policy
• Environmental Federalism and Conservation Efforts
• Federalism and Immigration Policies
• Indigenous Rights and Self-Government in Federal States
• Federalism and Education Policy
• The Role of Regional Parties in Federal Politics
• Federalism and Disaster Response
• Energy Policy and Federal-State Relations
• Federalism and Criminal Justice Reform
• Local Autonomy and Decentralization in Federal Systems
• The Impact of Federal Systems on Economic Development
• Constitutional Reform and Changes in Federalism
• Federalism and Social Welfare Programs
• The European Model of Federalism
• Comparative Analysis of Dual and Cooperative Federalism
• Foreign Policy
• Diplomatic Strategies in International Relations
• The Influence of Public Opinion on Foreign Policy
• Economic Diplomacy and Trade Negotiations
• The Role of Non-Governmental Organizations in Foreign Policy
• Conflict Resolution and Peacekeeping Efforts
• International Human Rights Advocacy and Foreign Policy
• Soft Power and Cultural Diplomacy
• Nuclear Proliferation and Arms Control
• Cybersecurity and Foreign Policy Challenges
• Climate Diplomacy and Global Environmental Agreements
• Refugee and Migration Policies in International Relations
• The Impact of International Organizations on Foreign Policy
• Energy Security and Geopolitical Strategies
• Regional Alliances and Security Agreements
• Terrorism and Counterterrorism Strategies
• Humanitarian Interventions and Responsibility to Protect
• The Role of Intelligence Agencies in Foreign Policy
• Economic Sanctions and Their Effectiveness
• Foreign Aid and Development Assistance
• International Law and Treaty Negotiations
• Gender and Politics
• Gender Representation in Political Leadership
• The Impact of Women’s Movements on Gender Policy
• Gender-Based Violence and Political Responses
• Intersectionality and Identity Politics in Gender Advocacy
• Gender Mainstreaming in Government Policies
• LGBTQ+ Rights and Political Movements
• Women in Conflict Resolution and Peace Negotiations
• The Gender Pay Gap and Labor Policies
• Female Political Empowerment and Quotas
• Masculinity Studies and Political Behavior
• Gender and Environmental Justice
• The Role of Men in Promoting Gender Equality
• Gender Stereotypes and Political Campaigns
• Reproductive Rights and Political Debates
• Gender, Race, and Political Power
• Feminist Foreign Policy and Global Women’s Rights
• Gender and Healthcare Policy
• Gender Disparities in Education Access
• Gender, Technology, and Digital Divide
• Patriarchy and Its Effects on Political Systems
• Globalization and Politics
• The Impact of Globalization on National Sovereignty
• Trade Agreements and Their Political Implications
• Globalization and Income Inequality
• Environmental Policies in the Globalized World
• Cultural Diversity in a Globalized Society
• Globalization and Labor Movements
• Global Health Governance and Pandemics
• Migration and Political Responses to Globalization
• Technology and Global Political Connectivity
• Globalization and Political Populism
• Human Rights in a Globalized Context
• Globalization and the Spread of Political Ideas
• Global Supply Chains and Political Vulnerabilities
• Media and Information Flow in Global Politics
• Globalization and Terrorism Networks
• Transnational Corporations and Political Influence
• Globalization and Political Identity
• The Role of International Organizations in Managing Globalization
• Globalization and Climate Change Politics
• Globalization and Post-Pandemic Political Challenges
• Political Ideologies
• Liberalism and Its Contemporary Relevance
• Conservatism in Modern Political Thought
• Socialism and Its Variations in Different Countries
• Fascism and the Rise of Far-Right Ideologies
• Anarchism and Political Movements
• Marxism and Its Influence on Political Theory
• Environmentalism as a Political Ideology
• Feminism and Its Political Manifestations
• Populism as an Emerging Political Ideology
• Nationalism and Its Role in Contemporary Politics
• Multiculturalism and Political Pluralism
• Postcolonialism and Its Impact on Global Politics
• Postmodernism and Its Critique of Political Discourse
• Religious Political Ideologies and Fundamentalism
• Libertarianism and Minimalist Government
• Technological Utopianism and Political Change
• Eco-Socialism and Environmental Politics
• Identity Politics and Intersectional Ideologies
• Indigenous Political Thought and Movements
• Futurism and Political Visions of Tomorrow

Checks and Balances

• The Role of the Executive Branch in Checks and Balances
• Congressional Oversight and Accountability
• The Separation of Powers in Parliamentary Systems
• Checks and Balances in Local Government
• Media and Public Opinion as Checks on Government
• Bureaucratic Agencies and Their Role in Oversight
• The Balance of Power in Federal Systems
• The Role of Political Parties in Checks and Balances
• Checks and Balances in Authoritarian Regimes
• The Role of Interest Groups in Government Oversight
• The Influence of Lobbying on Checks and Balances
• The Role of the Courts in Presidential Accountability
• Checks and Balances in Times of National Crisis
• The Use of Veto Power in Checks and Balances
• Checks and Balances and the Protection of Civil Liberties
• The Role of Whistleblowers in Exposing Government Misconduct
• Checks and Balances and National Security Policies
• The Evolution of Checks and Balances in Modern Democracies
• Interest Groups and Lobbies
• The Influence of Corporate Lobbying on Public Policy
• Interest Groups and Campaign Finance in Politics
• Advocacy Groups and Their Impact on Legislative Agendas
• The Role of Unions in Interest Group Politics
• Environmental Organizations and Lobbying Efforts
• Identity-Based Interest Groups and Their Political Power
• Health Advocacy Groups and Healthcare Policy
• The Influence of Foreign Lobbying on U.S. Politics
• Interest Groups and Regulatory Capture
• Interest Groups in Comparative Politics
• The Use of Social Media in Interest Group Campaigns
• Gun Control Advocacy and Interest Group Dynamics
• Religious Organizations and Political Lobbying
• Interest Groups and Human Rights Advocacy
• Farming and Agricultural Interest Groups
• Interest Groups and Education Policy
• LGBTQ+ Advocacy and Political Representation
• Interest Groups and Criminal Justice Reform
• Veterans’ Organizations and Their Political Clout
• Interest Groups and Their Role in Shaping Public Opinion
• International Relations
• Theories of International Relations: Realism, Liberalism, Constructivism
• Power Politics and International Security
• The Role of Diplomacy in Conflict Resolution
• Multilateralism vs. Unilateralism in International Relations
• International Organizations and Their Influence on World Politics
• Global Governance and Challenges to Sovereignty
• Humanitarian Interventions and the Responsibility to Protect
• Non-State Actors in International Relations
• International Law and Its Application in Conflict Zones
• Arms Control Agreements and Nuclear Proliferation
• International Trade Agreements and Economic Diplomacy
• International Environmental Agreements and Climate Change
• Cybersecurity Threats in the Digital Age
• Refugee Crises and Forced Migration on the Global Stage
• Geopolitics of Energy Resources
• Peacekeeping Operations and Conflict Prevention
• Global Health Diplomacy and Pandemic Response
• The Role of Intelligence Agencies in International Relations
• The Changing Dynamics of U.S.-China Relations

International Security

• Cybersecurity Threats and Global Security
• Arms Control and Nuclear Non-Proliferation
• Regional Conflict and Security Implications
• Humanitarian Interventions and Security Dilemmas
• Intelligence Sharing and National Security
• Environmental Security and Resource Conflicts
• Non-State Actors in Global Security
• Maritime Security and Freedom of Navigation
• The Role of International Organizations in Global Security
• Military Alliances and Collective Defense
• Space Security and Militarization of Outer Space
• Cyber Warfare and State-Sponsored Hacking
• Security Challenges in Post-Conflict Zones
• Refugee Crises and Security Implications
• Emerging Technologies and Security Risks
• Energy Security and Geopolitical Tensions
• Food Security and Global Agricultural Policies
• Biological and Chemical Weapons Proliferation
• Climate Change and Security Threats

Latin American Politics

• Populism in Latin American Politics
• Drug Trafficking and Security Challenges
• Political Instability and Regime Changes
• Indigenous Movements and Political Representation
• Corruption Scandals and Governance Issues
• Environmental Politics and Conservation Efforts
• Social Movements and Protests in Latin America
• Economic Inequality and Poverty Reduction Strategies
• Human Rights Violations and Accountability
• The Role of the United States in Latin American Politics
• Regional Integration and Trade Agreements
• Gender Equality and Women in Politics
• Land Reform and Agrarian Policies
• Indigenous Rights and Land Conflicts
• Media Freedom and Political Discourse
• Migration Patterns and Regional Impacts
• Authoritarian Regimes and Democratic Backsliding
• Drug Legalization Debates in Latin America
• Religious Influence in Politics
• Latin American Diplomacy and International Relations
• Law and Courts
• Judicial Independence and the Rule of Law
• Constitutional Interpretation and Originalism
• Supreme Court Decision-Making and Precedent
• Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility
• Criminal Justice Reform and Sentencing Policies
• Civil Rights Litigation and Legal Activism
• International Law and Its Application in Domestic Courts
• Alternative Dispute Resolution Mechanisms
• The Role of Judges in Shaping Public Policy
• Access to Justice and Legal Aid Programs
• Gender Bias in Legal Systems
• Intellectual Property Rights and Legal Challenges
• Immigration Law and Border Control
• Environmental Law and Sustainability
• Corporate Governance and Legal Compliance
• Privacy Rights in the Digital Age
• Family Law and Custody Disputes
• Law and Technology: Legal Issues in AI and Robotics
• Legal Education and Training of Lawyers
• Legal Pluralism and Customary Law Systems
• Legislative Studies
• The Role of Legislative Bodies in Policy-Making
• Parliamentary Systems vs. Presidential Systems
• Legislative Oversight and Government Accountability
• Party Politics and Legislative Behavior
• Committee Structures and Decision-Making Processes
• Electoral Systems and Their Impact on Legislation
• Minority Rights and Representation in Legislatures
• Lobbying and Interest Group Influence on Legislators
• Legislative Ethics and Codes of Conduct
• The Evolution of Legislative Bodies in Modern Democracies
• Legislative Responses to Crises and Emergencies
• Legislative Innovations and Reforms
• Legislative Responsiveness to Public Opinion
• Legislative Term Limits and Their Effects
• Gender Parity in Legislative Representation
• Legislative Coalitions and Majority Building
• Legislative Role in Budgetary Processes
• Legislative Oversight of Intelligence Agencies
• Subnational Legislatures and Regional Autonomy
• Comparative Analysis of Legislative Systems

Middle Eastern Politics

• The Arab Spring and Political Transformations
• Sectarianism and Conflict in the Middle East
• Authoritarianism and Political Repression
• The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict and Peace Efforts
• Oil Politics and Resource-Driven Conflicts
• Terrorism and Insurgency in the Middle East
• Foreign Interventions and Proxy Wars
• Human Rights Abuses and Accountability
• Religious Politics and Extremism
• Migration and Refugees in the Middle East
• Women’s Rights and Gender Equality
• Political Islam and Islamist Movements
• Water Scarcity and Regional Tensions
• Media and Censorship in Middle Eastern States
• Kurdish Politics and Autonomy Movements
• Sectarianism and Its Impact on State Structures
• Economic Challenges and Youth Unemployment
• Environmental Issues and Sustainability
• Iran’s Role in Regional Politics
• Middle Eastern Diplomacy and Global Relations

Nation and State

• National Identity and Its Influence on Statehood
• Secession Movements and the Question of Statehood
• Stateless Nations and the Right to Self-Determination
• State-Building in Post-Conflict Zones
• Failed States and International Interventions
• Ethnic Nationalism and Nation-Building
• Federalism and Devolution of Powers
• State Symbols and Nationalism
• Nationalism and Economic Policies
• Colonial Legacy and the Formation of Nations
• Territorial Disputes and State Sovereignty
• Ethnic Minorities and Their Political Rights
• Globalization and the Erosion of Statehood
• Nationalism in the Era of Transnationalism
• Nationalist Movements and Regional Autonomy
• The Role of Education in Shaping National Identity
• National Symbols and Their Political Significance
• Migration and Its Impact on National Identity
• Cultural Diversity and Nation-Building Challenges
• The Role of Language in Defining Nationhood

Political Behavior

• Voter Turnout and Political Participation Rates
• Political Socialization and Civic Engagement
• Partisan Loyalty and Voting Behavior
• Political Trust and Public Opinion
• Political Apathy and Its Causes
• Political Mobilization Strategies
• Protest Movements and Activism
• Electoral Behavior and Decision-Making
• Political Communication and Information Sources
• Political Social Networks and Online Activism
• Political Behavior of Youth and Generational Differences
• Political Behavior of Minority Groups
• Gender and Political Participation
• Social Media Influence on Political Behavior
• Public Opinion Polling and Its Impact
• Political Psychology and Behavioral Analysis
• Political Behavior in Non-Democratic Systems
• Voting Behavior in Swing States
• Political Behavior in Times of Crisis
• Political Behavior Research Methodologies

Political Change

• Regime Change and Democratization
• Revolution and Political Transformation
• Transitional Justice and Post-Conflict Reconciliation
• Political Leadership and Change Initiatives
• Nonviolent Movements and Political Change
• Social Movements and Policy Reforms
• The Role of Technology in Political Change
• Political Change in Authoritarian Regimes
• Youth-Led Political Change Movements
• Resistance Movements and Their Strategies
• Cultural Movements and Political Change
• Environmental Movements and Policy Impact
• Economic Crisis and Political Change
• International Influence on Political Change
• Indigenous Movements and Political Empowerment
• Women’s Movements and Gender-Driven Change
• Grassroots Movements and Local Governance
• The Impact of Global Events on Political Change
• Political Change and Human Rights
• Comparative Studies of Political Change

Political Communication

• Media Influence on Political Attitudes
• Political Advertising and Campaign Strategies
• Political Rhetoric and Persuasion Techniques
• Social Media and Political Discourse
• Political Debates and Public Perception
• Crisis Communication and Political Leadership
• Media Ownership and Political Influence
• Propaganda and Information Warfare
• Fact-Checking and Media Accountability
• News Framing and Agenda Setting
• Political Satire and Public Opinion
• Political Communication in Multicultural Societies
• Crisis Communication and Government Response
• Public Relations and Political Image Management
• Political Talk Shows and Public Engagement
• The Role of Polling in Political Communication
• Speechwriting and Political Oratory
• Media Literacy and Critical Thinking
• Political Communication Ethics and Responsibility
• Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Political Communication

Political Concepts

• Democracy: Theories and Applications
• Justice and Fairness in Political Systems
• Power and Authority in Governance
• Liberty and Individual Rights
• Equality: Political, Social, and Economic Dimensions
• Citizenship: Rights and Responsibilities
• Sovereignty and the State
• Representation and Political Legitimacy
• Political Obligation and Consent
• Rights vs. Welfare: A Philosophical Debate
• The Common Good in Political Philosophy
• Social Contract Theories and Political Order
• Freedom of Speech and Political Discourse
• Political Ideals and Utopian Visions
• The Ethics of Political Decision-Making
• Anarchy and Political Order
• Nationalism and Patriotism as Political Concepts
• Political Realism vs. Idealism
• Human Dignity and Political Values
• Multiculturalism and Cultural Diversity in Politics

Political Economy

• Economic Policies and Political Decision-Making
• The Impact of Global Trade Agreements on National Economies
• Income Inequality and Political Consequences
• Taxation Policies and Political Debates
• Political Influence on Central Banks
• Economic Growth vs. Environmental Sustainability
• Government Regulation of Financial Markets
• Economic Crises and Political Responses
• Populism and Economic Policies
• Economic Development and Political Stability
• Corruption and Economic Performance
• Political Economy of Resource-Rich Nations
• International Trade Wars and Political Tensions
• Fiscal Policies and Government Budgets
• Labor Market Policies and Political Alignment
• Economic Ideologies and Political Parties
• Globalization and Income Redistribution
• Economic Populism and Public Opinion
• Economic Forecasting and Political Decision-Making
• Comparative Studies of Political Economies

Political Parties

• Party Systems and Electoral Politics
• Party Platforms and Policy Agendas
• Coalition Politics and Party Alliances
• Third Parties and Their Influence
• Party Funding and Campaign Finance
• Political Party Polarization
• Party Identification and Voter Behavior
• Party Primaries and Candidate Selection
• Populist Parties and Their Impact
• Minor Parties and Representation
• Party Discipline and Legislative Behavior
• Party Systems in Non-Democratic States
• Party Leadership and Ideological Shifts
• Party Membership and Activism
• Youth Participation in Political Parties
• Party Conventions and Political Strategy
• Party Mergers and Dissolutions
• Ethnic and Religious Parties in Multi-Cultural Societies
• Popularity of Anti-Establishment Parties
• Comparative Studies of Political Party Systems

Political Psychology

• Political Attitudes and Ideological Beliefs
• Personality Traits and Political Preferences
• Political Socialization and Identity Formation
• Political Trust and Distrust
• Group Psychology and Political Behavior
• The Role of Emotions in Political Decision-Making
• Cognitive Biases and Political Judgment
• Political Persuasion and Communication
• Political Polarization and Social Identity
• Fear and Political Behavior
• Voter Apathy and Psychological Factors
• Motivated Reasoning in Politics
• Political Stereotypes and Prejudices
• Political Leadership and Charisma
• Political Participation and Civic Psychology
• Mass Movements and Crowd Psychology
• Political Stress and Mental Health
• The Psychology of Political Extremism
• Political Tolerance and Intolerance
• Cross-Cultural Perspectives in Political Psychology

Political Theory

• Theories of Justice and Equality
• Democratic Theory and Political Legitimacy
• Social Contract Theories in Political Philosophy
• The Ethics of Political Leadership
• Political Authority and Obedience
• Rights and Liberties in Political Theory
• Political Utopias and Ideal Societies
• Power and Its Distribution in Political Thought
• Political Liberalism vs. Communitarianism
• The Role of Consent in Governance
• Political Anarchism and Stateless Societies
• The Philosophy of Political Revolution
• Political Philosophy and Human Rights
• Theories of Political Representation
• Feminist Political Theory and Gender Equality
• Cosmopolitanism and Global Justice
• Political Conservatism and Traditionalism
• Postmodernism and Deconstruction in Political Theory
• Critical Theory and Social Change
• Comparative Political Theories

Politics and Society

• The Societal Impact of Welfare Policies
• Environmental Policies and Sustainable Societies
• Social Movements and Their Political Goals
• Education Policies and Social Equity
• Healthcare Policies and Public Health
• Criminal Justice Policies and Social Inequality
• Immigration Policies and Integration Challenges
• Social Media and Political Activism
• Identity Politics and Social Cohesion
• Economic Policies and Income Distribution
• Civil Society and Political Engagement
• Social Capital and Political Participation
• Family Policies and Social Values
• Multiculturalism and Cultural Diversity
• Social Inclusion and Exclusion in Politics
• Urbanization and Political Dynamics
• Social Stratification and Political Behavior
• Aging Populations and Policy Implications
• Social Norms and Political Change
• Cross-Cultural Studies of Politics and Society

Politics of Oppression

• Political Repression and Human Rights Violations
• The Role of Mass Media in Oppression
• Authoritarian Regimes and Dissent
• Gender-Based Oppression and Activism
• State Surveillance and Privacy Rights
• Indigenous Rights and Anti-Oppression Movements
• Political Exile and Dissident Communities
• Censorship and Freedom of Expression
• Political Violence and Resistance
• Ethnic Conflict and Oppressed Minorities
• The Psychology of Oppression and Compliance
• Political Persecution and International Responses
• Refugees and Asylum Politics
• Oppression in Cyber-Space
• Socioeconomic Oppression and Inequality
• Historical Perspectives on Political Oppression
• Anti-Oppression Legislation and Human Rights Advocacy
• Discrimination and the Law
• The Role of Non-Governmental Organizations in Oppression
• Comparative Studies of Oppressive Regimes

Public Administration

• Bureaucratic Accountability and Transparency
• Public Sector Reform and Modernization
• Administrative Ethics and Integrity
• Performance Measurement in Public Administration
• E-Government and Digital Transformation
• Public-Private Partnerships in Service Delivery
• Administrative Decision-Making and Policy Implementation
• Leadership and Change Management in the Public Sector
• Civil Service Systems and Human Resource Management
• Administrative Law and Legal Challenges
• Emergency Management and Crisis Response
• Local Government and Municipal Administration
• Public Budgeting and Financial Management
• Public Administration and Social Welfare Programs
• Environmental Administration and Sustainability
• Healthcare Administration and Policy
• Public Diplomacy and International Relations
• Administrative Responsiveness and Citizen Engagement
• Public Administration in Developing Nations
• Comparative Public Administration Studies

Public Policy

• Policy Analysis and Evaluation
• The Role of Think Tanks in Policy Formulation
• Policy Implementation Challenges and Solutions
• Policy Advocacy and Lobbying
• Healthcare Policy and Access to Medical Services
• Education Policy and Curriculum Development
• Social Welfare Policies and Poverty Alleviation
• Environmental Policy and Conservation Efforts
• Technology and Innovation Policy
• Immigration Policy and Border Control
• Security and Defense Policy
• Transportation and Infrastructure Policy
• Energy Policy and Sustainability
• Foreign Aid and Development Policies
• Taxation Policy and Revenue Generation
• Criminal Justice Policy and Sentencing Reform
• Trade Policy and Economic Growth
• Drug Policy and Harm Reduction Strategies
• Social and Cultural Policy Initiatives
• Comparative Policy Studies

Race/Ethnicity, and Politics

• Racial Discrimination and Political Activism
• Ethnic Conflict and Identity Politics
• Minority Rights and Representation
• Racial Profiling and Policing
• Affirmative Action and Equal Opportunity
• Indigenous Rights and Autonomy Movements
• Racial and Ethnic Voting Patterns
• The Role of Race in Political Campaigns
• Immigration Policies and Racial Implications
• Intersectionality and Multiple Identities
• Ethnic Diversity and Social Cohesion
• Slavery, Colonialism, and Historical Injustices
• Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Healthcare
• Education and Racial Achievement Gaps
• Media Representation and Stereotyping
• Hate Crimes and Extremist Movements
• Reparations and Compensation for Historical Wrongs
• Cultural Appropriation and Identity Politics
• Multiculturalism and Integration Policies
• Comparative Studies of Race and Politics

Religion and Politics

• The Role of Religious Institutions in Politics
• Religious Freedom and Secularism
• Faith-Based Advocacy and Social Change
• Religion and International Relations
• Religious Extremism and Terrorism
• Religion and Gender Equality
• Religious Minorities and Discrimination
• Political Parties and Religious Affiliation
• Religion and Environmental Ethics
• Interfaith Dialogue and Peacebuilding
• Religious Ethics and Public Policy
• Religion in Education and Curriculum Debates
• Charitable and Faith-Based Organizations
• Religious Symbols and Public Spaces
• Sacred Texts and Political Interpretations
• Pilgrimage and Political Pilgrimage
• Religion and Human Rights
• Religious Conversion and Apostasy
• Faith and Political Leadership
• Comparative Studies of Religion and Politics

Electoral Systems

• The Impact of Electoral Systems on Representation
• Proportional Representation vs. First-Past-the-Post
• Gerrymandering and Electoral Manipulation
• Electronic Voting and Election Security
• Ranked Choice Voting Systems
• Voter Turnout and Participation Rates
• Minority Representation in Electoral Systems
• Campaign Finance and Electoral Outcomes
• Voter Registration and Access to Voting
• Electoral Reforms and Political Parties
• Voting Behavior and Demographic Patterns
• Gender and Electoral Politics
• Electoral Systems in Post-Conflict Nations
• Hybrid Electoral Systems
• Electoral Justice and Redistricting
• Political Parties and Coalition Building
• Election Observation and International Standards
• Electoral Systems and Ethnic Conflict
• Voter Suppression and Disenfranchisement
• Electoral Systems in Non-Democratic Regimes

Rights and Freedoms

• Freedom of Speech and Censorship
• Civil Liberties in Times of Crisis
• Religious Freedom and Freedom of Worship
• LGBTQ+ Rights and Advocacy
• The Right to Protest and Assembly
• Racial Profiling and Discrimination
• Right to Bear Arms and Gun Control
• Refugee Rights and Asylum Seekers
• Indigenous Rights and Land Sovereignty
• Rights of the Accused and Due Process
• Access to Healthcare as a Human Right
• Education as a Fundamental Right
• Economic Rights and Income Inequality
• Children’s Rights and Child Protection
• Disability Rights and Accessibility
• Prisoner Rights and Criminal Justice Reform
• Freedom of the Press and Media Ethics
• Comparative Human Rights Frameworks

Science/Technology and Politics

• Cybersecurity and Election Interference
• Surveillance Technologies and Privacy
• Artificial Intelligence in Governance
• Internet Regulation and Net Neutrality
• Space Exploration and International Cooperation
• Ethical Implications of Biotechnology
• Climate Science and Environmental Policy
• Digital Diplomacy and International Relations
• Technology in Disaster Management
• Data Protection and Online Privacy
• Social Media and Political Influence
• Bioethics and Genetic Engineering
• Ethical Considerations in Artificial Intelligence
• Intellectual Property Rights and Innovation
• Ethical Dilemmas in Scientific Research
• Quantum Computing and National Security
• Robotics and the Future of Labor
• E-Government Initiatives and Digital Services
• Environmental Ethics and Sustainability
• Technology Transfer in Developing Nations

War and Peace

• Conflict Resolution and Diplomacy
• Peacebuilding and Post-Conflict Reconstruction
• Arms Control and Non-Proliferation Agreements
• Nuclear Deterrence and Arms Races
• Cyber Warfare and International Law
• Refugee Crises and Forced Displacement
• United Nations Peacekeeping Missions
• War Crimes and International Tribunals
• Security Alliances and Collective Defense
• Civil Wars and State Fragmentation
• Weapons of Mass Destruction and Global Security
• Peace Accords and Conflict Resolution
• Conflict Journalism and Media Coverage
• Civilian Protection and Human Rights in Conflict Zones
• The Ethics of Humanitarian Aid
• Regional Conflicts and Regional Organizations
• Conflict-Induced Migration and Refugee Policies
• The Role of Religion in Peace and Conflict

This comprehensive list merely scratches the surface of the intriguing topics available within the realm of political science. From the intricacies of constitutional law to the dynamics of Asian politics and the complexities of comparative analysis, the field of political science offers a rich tapestry of subjects for your research pursuits. We encourage you to explore these topics, refine your interests, and embark on an academic journey that not only expands your knowledge but also contributes to the broader discourse on politics and governance. As you navigate this list, remember that the key to a successful research paper is your passion for the subject matter. Choose a topic that resonates with you, and let your curiosity drive your exploration of political science research paper topics.

Browse More Political Science Topics:

• African Politics and Society
• American Politics and Society
• Asian Politics and Society
• Culture, Media, and Language
• European Politics and Society
• Federalism and Local Politics
• Institutions and Checks and Balances
• International Security and Arms Control
• Latin American Politics and Society

The Range of Political Science Research Paper Topics

Introduction

Political science, the systematic study of politics and government, provides valuable insights into the complex world of governance, policy-making, and international relations. For students of political science, selecting the right research paper topic can be the key to unlocking a deeper understanding of these intricate issues. This page serves as a comprehensive guide to the rich array of Political Science Research Paper Topics available, offering a detailed overview of the field and highlighting its significant contributions to society.

Exploring Political Science

Political science plays a pivotal role in deciphering the dynamics of the modern world. By analyzing the behavior of individuals, groups, and institutions in political settings, it seeks to unravel the complexities of governance and decision-making. This discipline’s significance extends far beyond the classroom, as it directly informs public policy, governance structures, and international relations.

The research conducted within political science serves as the foundation for crafting effective policies and addressing pressing global challenges. Governments and organizations worldwide rely on the expertise of political scientists to provide evidence-based recommendations and solutions. Whether it’s designing social welfare programs, analyzing international conflicts, or studying voter behavior, political science research is at the forefront of shaping the way societies function.

The Essence of Political Science

Political science is the intellectual foundation of modern political analysis and policy-making. It serves as a bridge between theory and practice, helping individuals understand not only the “what” but also the “why” and “how” of political phenomena. By examining political behavior, institutions, and ideologies, this field equips students with the tools to navigate the complexities of governance and to critically evaluate the policies that shape our lives.

One of the defining features of political science is its interdisciplinary nature. It draws from various disciplines, including history, economics, sociology, psychology, and philosophy, to offer a holistic understanding of political processes. For students passionate about examining the social and political forces that shape our world, political science is a vibrant and intellectually rewarding field of study.

The Relevance of Political Science Research

Political science research is not confined to academic ivory towers; it has a profound impact on society. The evidence-based insights generated by political scientists guide governments, inform public discourse, and influence policy decisions. Research on topics such as voting behavior helps in understanding democratic processes, while studies on international relations contribute to strategies for peacekeeping and diplomacy.

Political scientists also play a crucial role in examining and addressing contemporary global challenges. They explore topics such as climate change, migration, and human rights, offering valuable insights that can shape policies and international cooperation. The relevance of political science research extends to issues of governance, accountability, and the promotion of democratic values.

Range of Research Paper Topics

Within the vast realm of political science, there exists a diverse range of research paper topics that cater to different interests and perspectives. These topics encompass various subfields, each shedding light on distinct aspects of political behavior, institutions, and ideologies. Here, we delve into some of the intriguing areas that can serve as the foundation for your research endeavors:

Democracy and Democratization : The study of democratic systems and processes is a cornerstone of political science. Research in this area may explore topics such as the challenges of democratization in emerging nations, the role of media in shaping public opinion, or the impact of electoral systems on representation.

Political Corruption : Understanding and combating political corruption is critical for the integrity of governments worldwide. Research topics may range from analyzing corruption’s economic and social consequences to exploring strategies for prevention and enforcement.

Globalization and Politics : In an increasingly interconnected world, globalization profoundly influences political dynamics. Research in this area can examine issues like the impact of globalization on national sovereignty, the role of international organizations, or the ethics of global trade.

Political Ideologies : The realm of political ideologies delves into the philosophies and belief systems that underpin political movements and parties. Topics may include the examination of specific ideologies such as liberalism, conservatism, or socialism, and their historical evolution.

Science/Technology and Politics : The intersection of science, technology, and politics is a fertile ground for research. This area covers topics like the influence of digital platforms on political discourse, ethical considerations in artificial intelligence, and the role of technology in election campaigns.

War and Peace : The study of international conflict and peacekeeping efforts remains a central concern in political science. Research may focus on issues like the causes of armed conflicts, peace negotiation strategies, or the ethics of humanitarian interventions.

Religion and Politics : Religion’s impact on political behavior and policies is a subject of ongoing debate. Research in this area can explore the role of religious institutions in politics, the influence of faith on voting patterns, or interfaith relations in diverse societies.

Race/Ethnicity, and Politics : The intersection of race, ethnicity, and politics raises critical questions about representation and equality. Research topics may encompass racial disparities in political participation, the impact of identity politics, or the dynamics of minority-majority relations.

Public Policy and Administration : The field of public policy and administration involves the study of how policies are formulated, implemented, and evaluated. Topics may include healthcare policy, environmental regulations, or the role of bureaucracy in shaping public programs.

International Relations : International relations examine interactions between states and the complexities of the global order. Research topics may focus on diplomacy, international organizations, global conflicts, or the challenges of international cooperation.

Human Rights and Justice : The study of human rights and justice explores ethical dilemmas and legal frameworks. Research may encompass issues like refugee rights, humanitarian law, or the role of international courts in addressing human rights abuses.

Environmental Politics : In an era of environmental challenges, political science research on environmental politics is vital. Topics may cover climate change policy, sustainable development, or the politics of natural resource management.

Evaluating Political Science Research Topics

As students explore these diverse topics, it’s essential to consider various factors when choosing a research paper topic. Here are some key considerations:

• Personal Interest : Select a topic that genuinely interests you. Your passion for the subject matter will fuel your research efforts and maintain your motivation throughout the project.
• Relevance : Consider the relevance of your chosen topic to current political debates, policies, or global issues. Research that addresses pressing concerns often has a more significant impact.
• Feasibility : Assess the availability of data, research materials, and access to experts or primary sources. Ensure that your chosen topic is researchable within your constraints.
• Originality : While it’s not necessary to reinvent the wheel, aim to contribute something new or offer a fresh perspective on existing debates or issues.
• Scope : Define the scope of your research clearly. Determine whether your topic is too broad or too narrow and adjust it accordingly.
• Methodology : Think about the research methods you’ll use. Will you conduct surveys, interviews, content analysis, or use historical data? Ensure that your chosen methods align with your topic.
• Ethical Considerations : Be mindful of ethical considerations, especially when dealing with sensitive topics or human subjects. Ensure that your research adheres to ethical standards.

Political science, as a multifaceted discipline, holds immense relevance in today’s world. Its research not only informs governance and policy-making but also empowers individuals to engage critically with the complex political issues of our time. The spectrum of Political Science Research Paper Topics is vast, reflecting the diversity of political phenomena and ideas.

As students embark on their research journeys in political science, they have the opportunity to make meaningful contributions to our understanding of governance, society, and international relations. By choosing topics that resonate with their interests and align with the pressing issues of the day, students can truly make a difference in the field of political science.

In closing, we encourage students to explore the wealth of Political Science Research Paper Topics, delve deep into their chosen areas of study, and harness the power of knowledge to effect positive change in the political landscape.

Choosing Political Science Research Paper Topics

Selecting the right research topic is a crucial step in the journey of academic inquiry. It sets the tone for your entire research paper, influencing its direction, depth, and impact. When it comes to political science research paper topics, the stakes are high, as the field encompasses a wide range of subjects that can shape our understanding of governance, policy-making, and international relations. In this section, we’ll explore ten valuable tips to help you choose political science research paper topics that align with your interests, resonate with current debates, and provide ample research opportunities.

10 Tips for Choosing Political Science Research Paper Topics:

• Follow Your Passion : Begin your quest for the right research topic by considering your interests. Passion for a subject often fuels motivation and ensures your engagement throughout the research process. Whether it’s human rights, international diplomacy, or environmental policy, choose a topic that genuinely excites you.
• Stay Informed : Keep abreast of current political events, debates, and emerging issues. Reading newspapers, academic journals, and reputable websites can help you identify contemporary topics that are both relevant and research-worthy. Being informed about current affairs is essential for crafting timely and impactful research.
• Explore Gaps in Existing Literature : Conduct a thorough literature review to identify gaps or areas where further research is needed. This not only helps you understand the existing discourse but also provides insights into unexplored avenues for your research. Building on or critiquing existing research can contribute significantly to the field.
• Consider Policy Relevance : Think about the practical relevance of your chosen topic. How does it connect to real-world policy challenges? Research that addresses pressing policy issues tends to have a more substantial impact and can attract the attention of policymakers and practitioners.
• Delve into Comparative Studies : Comparative politics offers a wealth of research opportunities by allowing you to examine political systems, policies, or issues across different countries or regions. Comparative studies can yield valuable insights into the impact of context and culture on political outcomes.
• Narrow or Broaden Your Focus : Be mindful of the scope of your research topic. Some topics may be too broad to cover comprehensively in a single paper, while others may be too narrow, limiting available research material. Strike a balance by defining your research question or problem statement clearly.
• Consult Your Professors and Peers : Don’t hesitate to seek guidance from your professors or peers. They can offer valuable insights, suggest relevant literature, and help you refine your research question. Collaboration and mentorship can significantly enhance your research experience.
• Evaluate Feasibility : Assess the feasibility of your chosen topic. Consider the availability of data, research materials, and access to experts or primary sources. Ensure that your research is doable within your constraints, including time and resources.
• Embrace Interdisciplinary Perspectives : Political science often intersects with other disciplines, such as sociology, economics, or environmental science. Explore interdisciplinary angles to enrich your research. Collaborating with experts from related fields can lead to innovative insights.
• Ethical Considerations : When selecting a research topic, be mindful of ethical considerations, especially if your research involves human subjects or sensitive issues. Ensure that your research adheres to ethical standards and obtains the necessary approvals.

Choosing the right political science research paper topic is a dynamic process that requires reflection, exploration, and critical thinking. By following these ten tips, you can navigate the landscape of political science topics with confidence. Remember that your research topic is not set in stone; it can evolve as you delve deeper into your studies and gain new insights.

As you embark on your research journey, keep in mind that the topics you choose have the potential to contribute to our understanding of the political world, inform policy decisions, and shape the future of governance. Embrace the opportunity to explore, question, and discover, for it is through research that we illuminate the path to progress in the field of political science.

Choose your topics wisely, engage in meaningful inquiry, and let your passion for political science drive your pursuit of knowledge.

How to Write a Political Science Research Paper

Writing a research paper in political science is a distinctive journey that allows you to explore complex issues, develop critical thinking skills, and contribute to the body of knowledge in the field. Effective research paper writing is not only about conveying your ideas clearly but also about constructing a compelling argument supported by rigorous evidence. In this section, we’ll delve into ten valuable tips that will help you craft high-quality political science research papers, enabling you to communicate your findings effectively and make a meaningful impact.

10 Tips for Writing Political Science Research Papers:

• Thoroughly Understand the Assignment : Before you start writing, carefully read and understand your assignment guidelines. Clarify any doubts with your professor, ensuring you have a clear grasp of the expectations regarding format, length, and content.
• Choose a Strong Thesis Statement : Your thesis statement is the heart of your research paper. It should be clear, concise, and arguable. Ensure that it presents a central argument or question that your paper will address.
• Conduct In-Depth Research : A robust research paper relies on well-sourced evidence. Explore academic journals, books, reputable websites, and primary sources related to your topic. Take detailed notes and keep track of your sources for accurate citations.
• Structure Your Paper Effectively : Organize your paper logically, with a coherent introduction, body, and conclusion. Each section should flow smoothly, building upon the previous one. Use headings and subheadings to guide your reader.
• Craft a Captivating Introduction : Your introduction should grab the reader’s attention and provide context for your research. It should introduce your thesis statement and outline the main points you will address.
• Develop a Compelling Argument : Present a clear and well-reasoned argument throughout your paper. Each paragraph should support your thesis statement, with evidence and analysis that reinforces your position.
• Cite Your Sources Properly : Accurate citations are crucial in political science research papers. Follow the citation style (e.g., APA, MLA, Chicago) specified in your assignment guidelines. Pay careful attention to in-text citations and the bibliography.
• Edit and Proofread Diligently : Writing is rewriting. After completing your initial draft, take the time to revise and edit your paper. Check for clarity, coherence, grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors. Consider seeking feedback from peers or professors.
• Stay Objective and Avoid Bias : Political science research requires objectivity. Avoid personal bias and ensure that your analysis is based on evidence and sound reasoning. Acknowledge counterarguments and address them respectfully.
• Craft a Strong Conclusion : Summarize your main points and restate your thesis in the conclusion. Discuss the implications of your research and suggest areas for future study. Leave your reader with a lasting impression.

Writing a political science research paper is not just an academic exercise; it’s an opportunity to engage with critical issues, contribute to knowledge, and develop essential skills. By applying these ten tips, you can navigate the complexities of research paper writing with confidence.

As you embark on your journey to craft high-quality papers, remember that effective communication is the key to making a meaningful impact in the realm of political science. Your research has the potential to shape discussions, influence policies, and contribute to our collective understanding of the political world.

Embrace the writing process, celebrate your achievements, and view each paper as a stepping stone in your academic and intellectual growth. Whether you’re exploring global diplomacy, dissecting political ideologies, or analyzing policy decisions, your research papers can be a force for positive change in the world of politics.

As you tackle the challenges and opportunities of political science research, remember that the knowledge you gain and the skills you develop are valuable assets that will serve you well in your academic and professional journey. Write with passion, rigor, and integrity, and let your research papers be a testament to your commitment to advancing the field of political science.

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With our commitment to quality, accessibility, and confidentiality, iResearchNet stands as your dependable resource for exceptional research paper assistance. We invite you to experience the difference of working with a team that shares your passion for political science and is dedicated to helping you achieve your academic goals. Choose iResearchNet, and let your research papers shine as beacons of excellence in the field of political science.

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Political Ecology and Environmental Justice (013IDS)

30 credits, Level 6

Spring teaching

We will engage with environmental justice concerns through the lens of political ecology.

Political ecology is a broad set of theoretical and methodological approaches (incorporating feminist political ecologies, urban political ecologies and decolonial political ecologies) that helps us to understand the relationship between environmental change and social (in)justice.

We will explore the origins of political ecology through:

• human geography, anthropology and ecological Marxism
• the emergence of critical challenges from feminist and decolonial political ecologists
• exploring the relationship between political ecology and other disciplines such as science and technology studies.

The second section of the course will provide you with the methodological and practical training required for your assignments.

Contact hours and workload

We regularly review our modules to incorporate student feedback, staff expertise, as well as the latest research and teaching methodology. We’re planning to run these modules in the academic year 2024/25. However, there may be changes to these modules in response to feedback, staff availability, student demand or updates to our curriculum. We’ll make sure to let you know of any material changes to modules at the earliest opportunity.

This module is offered on the following courses:

• Anthropology BA
• Anthropology and International Development BA
• Anthropology with a Language BA
• Economics and International Development BA
• Geography and Anthropology BA
• Geography and International Development BA
• History and Anthropology BA
• International Development BA
• International Development with a Language BA
• International Relations and Anthropology BA
• International Relations and Development BA
• Sociology and International Development BA

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It’s Time to Unbundle ESG

• Aaron K. Chatterji
• Michael W. Toffel

To continue making progress on all three fronts, companies should focus on each issue individually.

ESG is at an inflection point. It has come to represent a broad and inchoate aspiration for what business should be doing beyond maximizing shareholder value. With ESG advocates on the defensive, business leaders need a new roadmap to determine which factors to incorporate into their business strategies and operations – and their political advocacy – and how they will communicate this to their stakeholders. Leaders should adopt a two-pronged approach: 1) Identify the sustainability issues that have the most potential impact on the bottom line and solve for them; and 2) Identify the most material negative impacts your firm is having on society and solve for them. Both of these require scanning for the biggest opportunities and threats that environmental, social, and governance issues pose to your company’s short- and long-term competitiveness.

In the summer of 2023, a prominent business trend seemed to reach a dramatic and an unexpected end. Larry Fink, the CEO of BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager with more than $9 trillion under management at the time, announced that he would no longer use the term “ESG” to describe the company’s approach to investing. While interest in environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance has grown over the last two decades, an accelerating backlash in the U.S. against “woke” investing delivered what looks like a fatal blow.

• Aaron K. Chatterji is an associate professor at Duke University and a visiting associate professor at Harvard Business School.
• Michael W. Toffel is the Senator John Heinz Professor of Environmental Management at Harvard Business School, host of the HBS Climate Rising podcast, and co-lead of the HBS Online Business and Climate Change course.

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