PL SC 597A: ENVIRONMENTAL POLITICS. Spring 2012

Transcription

1 236 Pond Lab Tuesday, 1:00 PM - 4:00 PM Professor Xun Cao 206 Pond Lab Tel: xuc11@psu.edu PL SC 597A: ENVIRONMENTAL POLITICS Spring 2012 Office Hours: by appointment. Course Goals and Overview: Environmental politics could be considered a new field, depending whether one counts the studies of international regimes (including the environmental ones) in the IR tradition. A new field calls for a new generation of scholars, maybe. This course will first explore recent literature that studies environmental politics from international and comparative political economy perspectives: we start with the domestic side of the environmental politics such as democratic and other types of domestic institutions, partisanship, public opinion, and green movements to explain environmental policy outputs and outcomes. Students will be exposed to some of the broad research areas and questions in the ongoing research agenda of the field, including environmental politics in authoritarian states, effects of political and economic transitions on the natural environment, and the role of citizen preferences and civil society on environmental policy choices. We then move on to study the connections between resource scarcity/climate change and conflicts. This literature has a long tradition that might go back to Malthus, if not earlier. However, the research community has so far failed to find consistent evidence that supports the eco-conflict argument despite strong interests and heavy investments in many research projects. Should we end these efforts or should we come up with better theory and data? Third, we will spend a few weeks to study the literature on international regime and climate change politics. The connections between globalization and environment will be studied at the end. Assignments Two thought papers: 20% each. For each paper, - Pick the readings for one week: there is no single right way to write a thought paper, but when you write, you might want to pay attention to the following questions: what are the key research questions/puzzles that unite these readings, for example, the role of domestic political institutions on environmental policies? Do you agree or disagree with the main arguments and why? (You need to give some argument to support your opinion.) Here, pay attention to the underlying theoretical assumptions: some of them are explicitly discussed in the readings; some or maybe most of them are not; but do they make any sense and are they necessary? Would and how do the theoretical implications change if we relax the key assumptions? Moreover, you might want to discuss the testable implications of the theory and evaluate the quality of empirical analysis. Finally, which is where the discussion above should lead us, what is the next step in this research agenda? 1

2 - For the 2 weeks that you choose to write the thought papers on, you also need to send the papers to everyone in the class on Monday and lead the discussion the following day for the seminar. - The thought papers may also serve as a place to begin to develop ideas for your own further research. Research Paper: 40% - By the end of week 5 (02/10/2012), you should find a research question or puzzle related to the course topics, speak to me about it either in or after class in office hours. This part is not graded but it is very important because all good research starts with the right question. - By week 6 (02/17/2012), I need from you a written statement on your research question. This should be no more than one page, basically telling someone outside the discipline why this is an important and interesting question that is worth doing (5% of the final grade). - Between week 7-10: class presentation of the research question, literature review, and your theory (20 mins presentation + 20 Q&A). Not graded. - By week 11 (03/30/2012), you need to turn in a literature review plus your own hypothesis on the research question; this should be no more than 4,000 words (15% of the final grade). - By week 16 (05/04/2012), you should finish the rest of the paper, that is, collecting data (quantitative and/or qualitative) and testing your hypothesis. All together, this should be no more than 10,000 words: think about this as something you want to submit to a journal. (20% of the final grade based on the FINAL paper). Participation: 20% - 10% for leading the discussion. - 10% for general participation. Readings I expect you to read everything listed on the syllabus for a particular date before class. The reading load is not light, but neither is it too heavy. Make sure you leave yourself plenty of time, and look ahead for heavy reading days. Most readings are journal articles; I will upload the PDFs to Angel. For others few readings involving book chapters, I will arrange copies to be made. Readings that are followed by a * are not required; but it might help to skim through. Course Outline (note: all dates are subject to change): Part I: Introduction and overview Week 1: Course Introduction. Hardin The Tragedy of the Commons. Science 162(3859): Ostrom et al Revisiting the Commons: Local Lessons, Global Challenges. Science 284(5412):

3 Wackernagel et al Tracking the Ecological Overshoot of the Human Economy. Proceedings of National Academy of Science 99(14): Week 2: Review of the Naïve Field. Lowe and Rudig Political Ecology and the Social Sciences --- The State of the Art. British Journal of Political Science 16: Scruggs Sustaining Abundance, Cambridge University Press: chapter 1 and 3. Gleditsch Armed Conflict and the Environment: A Critique of the Literature. Journal of Peace Research 35: Mitchell Regime Design Matters: Intentional Oil Pollution and Treaty Compliance. International Organization 48(3), Part II: Domestic Stories of Environmental Politics Week 3: Debates about Democracies: do they do better? Congleton Political Institutions and Pollution Control. Review of Economics and Statistics 74(3): Payne Freedom and the Environment. Journal of Democracy 6: Midlarsky Democracy and the Environment: An Empirical Assessment. Journal of Peace Research 35: Beeson The Coming of Environmental Authoritarianism. Environmental Politics 19(2): Quan and Reuveny Democracy and Environmental Degradation. International Studies Quarterly 50(4): Bernauer, Thomas, and Vally Koubi Effects of Political Institutions on Air Quality. Ecological Economics 68 (5): Week 4: More on Domestic Institutions and Interests. Scruggs Sustaining Abundance, Cambridge University Press: chapter 5 and 6. Fredriksson and Millimet Comparative politics and environmental taxation. Journal of Environmental Economics and Management 48: Fredriksson and Wollscheid Democratic Institutions versus Autocratic Regimes: The Case of Environmental Policy. Public Choice 130(3/4): Broz and Maliniak Malapportionment, Gasoline Taxes, and Climate Change. Working paper. Lipscy Efficiency Clientelism. Working paper. Kelemen and Vogel Trading Places: The Role of the United States and the European Union in International Environmental Politics. Comparative Political Studies 43: * Week 5: Moving beyond the Democracy-Autocracy Dichotomy. Andonova, Mansfield, and Milner International Trade and Environmental Policy in the Postcommunist World. Comparative Political Studies 40(7): Lim and Tang Democratization and Environmental Policy-Making in Korea, Governance 15: Doyle and Simpson Traversing more than speed bumps: Green politics under authoritarian regimes in Burma and Iran. Environmental Politics 15(5): * Cao and Ward Constituency Size, Extractive State Capacity, and Pollution: Environmental Implications from an Authoritarian Politics Model. Working paper. 3

4 Harrison and Kostka Manoeuvres for a Low Carbon State: The Local Politics of Climate Change in China and India. Working paper. (An interesting book on environmental problems of China is Elizabeth Economy, The River Runs Black: The Environmental Challenge to China's Future, (Cornell University Press, 2004; Second Edition, 2010.) Mumme, Bath, and Assetto Political Development and Environmental Policy in Mexico. Latin American Research Review 23: Jacobs Community Participation, the Environment, and Democracy: Brazil in Comparative Perspective, Latin American Politics & Society, 44: Week 6: Public Opinion. Rohrschneider The Roots of Public Opinion Towards New Social Movements: An Empirical Test of Competing Explanations. American Journal of Political Science 34: Inglehart and Abramson Economic Security and Value Change. American Political Science Review 88: Inglehart Public Support for Environmental Protection: The Impact of Objective Problems and Subjective Values in 43 Societies. Political Science and Politics 28: Brechin and Kempton Global Environmentalism: A Challenge to the Postmaterialism Thesis. Social Science Quarterly 75: Kidd and Lee Postmaterialist Values and the Environment: A Critique and a Reappraisal. Social Science Quarterly 78: 1-15.* Wood and Vedlitz Issue Definition, Information Processing, and the Politics of Global Warming. American Journal of Political Science 51(3): Tingley and Tomz Conditional Cooperation, International Organizations, and Climate Change. Working paper. Week 7: Green Movements. Tarrow Power in Movement: Social Movements, Collective Action and Politics. Chapter 1. Rootes Environmental Movements from the Local to the Global, Environmental Politics 8: Schlosberg Networks and mobile arrangements: Organisational innovation in the US environmental justice movement, Environmental Politics 8(1): Diani and Donati Organisational Change in Western European Environmental Groups: A Framework for Analysis', Environmental Politics 8: (Other papers in this special issue of Environmental Politics on the environmental movement are also useful.). Kitschelt Political Opportunity Structures and Political protest: Anti-Nuclear Movements in Four Democracies, British Journal of Political Science 16: Van der Heijden Political Opportunity Structures and the Institutionalisation of the Environmental Movement, Environmental Politics 6(4): * Poloni-Staudinger The Domestic Opportunity Structure and Supranational Activity: An Explanation of Environmental Group Activity at the European Union Level, European Union Politics 9(4): * Dalton, Reccia, and Rohrschneider The Environmental Movement and Modes of Political Action, Comparative Political Studies, 36(7): Week 8: Green Parties and Partisan Politics. Birch Real Progress: Prospects for Green Party Support in Britain, Parliamentary Affairs 62(1): Carter The Greens in the 2009 European parliament election. Environmental Politics 19(2):

5 Poguntke Green Parties in National Governments: From Protest to Acquiescence. Environmental Politics 11(1): Burchell Evolving or Conforming: Assessing Organisational Reform Within European Green Parties. West European Politics 24: Muller-Rommel The Lifespan and Political Position of Green Parties in Western Europe. Environmental Politics 11(1): Ward and Cao Domestic and International Influences on Green Taxation. Forthcoming in Comparative Political Studies. Part III: Eco-conflicts Week 9: Resource Scarcity and Conflicts. Homer-Dixon On the Threshold: Environmental Changes as Causes of Acute Conflict. International Security 16(2): Homer-Dixon Environmental Scarcities and Violent Conflict: Evidence from Cases. International Security 19(1): 5 40 Hauge and Ellingsen Beyond Environmental Scarcity: Causal Pathways to Conflict. Journal of Peace Research 35: Theisen Blood and Soil? Resource Scarcity and Internal Armed Conflict Revisited. Journal of Peace Research 45(6): Levy Is the Environment a National Security Issue? International Security 20(2): Homer-Dixon and Levy Environment and Security. International Security 20(3): Week 10: Eco-conflict continued; more on the climate change connection. (This is likely to be the first week of paternity leave.) Barnett and Adger Climate Change, Human Security and Violent Conflict. Political Geography 26: Salehyan From Climate Change to Conflict? No Consensus Yet. Journal of Peace Research 45: Raleigh and Urdal Climate Change, Environmental Degradation and Armed Conflict. Political Geography 26: Zhang et al Global Climate Change, War, and Population Decline in Recent Human History. Proceedings National Academy of Science 104(49): Note: there is a special issue on climate change and conflict from JPR for Jan 2012: not up yet, but we might spend some time on this if there is enough interest. Part IV: International Regimes and Climate Change Politics Week 11: International Environmental Regimes. (This is likely to be the second week of paternity leave). Keohane After Hegemony: Cooperation and Discord in the World Political Economy: chapter 1-6. Keohane and Ostrom Introduction to the special issue. Journal of Theoretical Politics 6(4): Week 12: Regime Effectiveness. 5

6 Helm and Sprinz Measuring the Effectiveness of International Environmental Regimes. Journal of Conflict Resolution 44(2000), Young Inferences and Indices: Evaluating the Effectiveness of International Environmental Regimes. Global Environmental Politics 1(1): Mitchell Problem structure, institutional design, and the relative effectiveness of international environmental agreements. Global Environmental Politics 6(3): Dai Why Comply? The Domestic Constituency Mechanism. International Organization 59 (2): Week 13: International Politics of Climate Change. Bodansky: The History of the Global Climate Change Regime ; and Raustiala: Non-State Actors in the International Climate Regime: NGOs, IGOs, Epistemic Communities and the Framework Convention on Climate Change, both in Luterbacher and Sprinz: International Relations and Global Climate Change, Global Environmental Politics special issue on the Comparative Politics of Climate Change, 2007: Harrison and Sundstrom Introduction: The Comparative Politics of Climate Change. Global Environmental Politics 7: 1-18 Schreurs and Tiberghien Multi-Level Reinforcement: Explaining European Union Leadership in Climate Change Mitigation. Global Environmental Politics 7: Henry and McIntosh Russia and the Kyoto Protocol: Seeking an Alignment of Interests and Image. Global Environmental Politics 7: Harrison The Road Not Taken: Climate Change Policy in Canada and the United States. Global Environmental Politics 7: Andonova, Betsill, and Bulkeley Transnational Climate Governance. Global Environmental Politics 9: * Skjærseth and Wettestad The Origin, Evolution and Consequences of the EU Emissions Trading System. Global Environmental Politics 9: * Part V: Connections to Globalization Week 14: Globalization and the Environment. Daly The Perils of Free Trade. Scientific American, November: Jaffe et al Environmental Regulation and the Competitiveness of U.S. Manufacturing: What Does the Evidence Tell Us? Journal of Economic Literature 33(1): Wheeler Beyond Pollution Havens. Global Environmental Politics 2: Clapp What the Pollution Havens Debate Overlooks. Global Environmental Politics 2: Thompson and Strohm Trade and Environmental Quality: A Review of the Evidence. Journal of Environment and Development 5: Cao and Prakash Trade Competition and Environmental Regulations: Domestic Political Constraints and Issue Visibility. Journal of Politics. Week 15: Research Project Presentations. 6