As urgent environmental challenges such as the climate crisis highlight the need for transformative change on a global scale, understanding what compels parties to prioritise the environment is more important than ever. Evidence suggests that representatives who consider environmental issues to be a greater priority are more likely to address them. It is also widely thought that economic globalisation has contributed to increased environmental issue prioritisation, however this potential driver remains underexplored. This book investigates the impact of economic globalisation on domestic environmental politics, focusing on how states' integration into the global economy has contributed to an increased focus on environmental issues in political party agendas. In doing this, it begins to bridge the gap between the literatures on domestic drivers of environmental issue prioritisation and the impact economic globalisation has had, broadly speaking, on politics. This book sets out how political economic shifts connected to economic globalisation – together with changes in the dynamics of party competition – have contributed to increased environmental issue emphasis in the election manifestos of parties. It analyses party agendas across 34 OECD member states and over six decades (1960-2021), using both time series cross-sectional models and qualitative case studies. Building on past work that focuses largely on domestic factors, the book prosecutes the argument that external forces are also highly relevant, ultimately demonstrating that parties have increased environmental issue emphasis as the states they operate within have become more deeply integrated into the global economy and more dependent on international trade and cooperation.
