RED AND GREEN - AIR-POLLUTION LEVELS AND LEFT PARTY POWER IN OECD COUNTRIES

Recent review articles in environmental policy have called for more ri gorous cross-national tests and for better integration with the standa rd literature on comparative politics and political economy. In this p aper we take a first step in that direction, examining the relationshi p between air pollution and left party strength in seventeen OECD coun tries. Despite theoretical salience and political relevance, we know o f no previous attempt of this sort. Three competing hypotheses exist. First, because of an historic agenda which emphasizes maximum employme nt and material welfare for the working class, left party strength mig ht be associated with lower than normal environmental quality. Second, given the belief in government intervention to socialize the negative externalities of market capitalism, left party strength might motivat e higher than normal environmental quality. Third, despite observed va riations in agenda setting, policy formulation, and implementation, sk eptics have often replied, ''different styles, similar content'', sugg esting no party relevance at all. Our analysis, controlling for quanti tative energy consumption and qualitative economic structure, reveals a moderate but sustainable inverse relationship between left party str ength and per capita levels of air pollution. In the conclusion we spe culate how and why this result might occur.