European Policy Analysis Volume 2, Number 2, Winter 2016 | Page 74

European Policy Analysis
Kenski and Kenski 1980 ; Pierce and Lovrich 1980 ; Ritt and Ostheimer 1974 ) and the political orientation of public opinion on environmental issues ( Buttel and Flinn 1974 ; Costantini and Hanf 1972 ; Dunlap and McCright 2008 ; Hamilton 2008 ; 2011 ; Hamilton and Keim 2009 ; Howell and Laska 1992 ; Jones and Dunlap 1992 ; Malka , Krosnick , and Langer 2009 ; McCright and Dunlap 2011 ; Tognacci et al . 1972 ; Tranter 2010 ; Uyeki and Holland 2000 ).
At the leaders ’ level , a broad number of works analyzed the environmental preference in the left-right party stream by looking at party platforms ( Engelbert 1961 ; Sundquist 1968 ; Trop and Roos 1971 ). In some cases , they adopted the well-known Party Manifesto Project and Chapel Hill Expert Surveys ( Bakker , Jolly , and Polk 2012 ; Budge , Robertson , and Hearl 1987 ; Carter 2013 ; Laver 2003 ; Laver and Hunt 1992 ; Neumayer 2004 ; Volkens et al . 2012 ). In other cases , they studied the policy orientation of parties in governments on environmental issues and presence of Green parties ( Carter 2006 ; Dalton 2009 ; Jensen and Spoon 2011 ; Kitschelt 1998 ; Rohrschneider 1993 ; Rüdig 2012 ).
Despite the vast number of works that can be labelled as “ party preference ” on environmental issues , the majority of them recognized that left-wing politicians and party leaders attributed importance to environmental issues ( Brulle , Carmichael , and Jenkins 2012 ; Calvert 1979 ; Carman 1998 ; Carter 2006 ; 2009 ; Dalton 2009 ; Dunlap and Allen 1976 ; Dunlap , Xiao , and McCright 2001 ; Elliott , Seldon , and Regens 1997 ; Franzen and Vogl 2013 ; Guber 2003 ; Jones and Dunlap 1992 ; Kenski and Kenski
1980 ; McCright and Dunlap 2011 ; Page and Jones 1979 ; Rohrschneider 1993 ; Tognacci et al . 1972 ; Uyeki and Holland 2000 ; Van Liere and Dunlap 1980 ). H Hence , we hypothesize that :
H4 . Left-wing political leaders will be more likely to attribute salience to environmental issues .
Research Design
A comparative analysis has been designed to answer these research questions and to test the hypotheses listed in the theoretical section . Each hypothesis has been operationalized by adopting well-established measures . The two subhypotheses related to the levels of economic growth and well-being shrinkage have been tested against fluctuations of the gross domestic product ( hereafter , GDP ) which measures the monetary value of final goods and services produced in a country over a given period of time ( Callen 2012 ). This measure was chosen because it is commonly used as a reference point for the health of national and global economies in the sense that , in countries where the GDP is growing , “ workers and businesses are generally better off than when it is not ” ( Callen 2012 ). The environmental quality of each country was measured with the Environmental Performance Index ( hereafter , EPI ), a joint initiative of Yale and Columbia Universities to provide a data-driven assessment of environmental conditions which is recognized as “ the most comprehensive and systematic effort [..] to assess environmental outcomes at a country level ” ( Fiorino 2011 , 371 ). I
H
Only a number of works found left-right party preference as inconsistent with environmental salience ( Buttel and Flinn 1976 ; 1978 ; Carter 2013 ; Dunlap 1975 ; Springer and Costantini 1974 ). Moreover , researchers found that salience to environmental issues was attributed also by left-wing policy-makers ( Costantini and Hanf 1972 ; Mazmanian and Sabatier 1981 ) and left-wing activists ( Benton 1997 ; Edey 1970 ; Jahn 1998 ; King and Borchardt 1994 ; Lake 1983 ; Pierce 1977 ; Steger and Witt 1989 ; Tranter 2010 ; Weigel and Weigel 1978 ).
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