Democratic institutions and climate change policy outcomes

• Main Author: Tan, Joshua Ching Khiang
• Other Authors: -
• Format: Thesis-Master by Coursework
• Language: English
• Published: Nanyang Technological University 2020
• Subjects: Social sciences::Political science::Political institutions
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/137820
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

This dissertation discusses the nature of international cooperation and domestic politics in climate change policy. More specifically, it examines whether and how democratic countries perform better in reducing carbon emissions. By employing a cross-national time-series analysis using both aggregate and disaggregate measures of domestic institutional traits of democracy for 97 countries, I find that aggregate measures are inadequate in studying climate change policy. Instead, the findings suggest that civil liberties play an important role when considering how countries perform better at lowering per capita carbon dioxide emissions. This study also finds that highly democratic countries with a well-educated citizenry are more likely to reduce carbon emissions compared to other countries. These findings have implications on empirical studies in climate change politics as well as how various spheres of domestic politics interact in the climate change arena. In summary, this paper highlights the causal mechanisms of specific institutional traits of democracy in reducing carbon emissions using quantitative methods and fills an important gap in the climate change politics literature, where previous studies have found conflicting evidence on the effects of democracy and democratic institutions on climate change policy.