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Does Democracy Promote Green Economy Progress?
| One question we’ve explored of late is the relationship between governance and climate/green economy progress. Is democracy “good” for gains in these areas? Or, does centralized government control enable faster progress? The recently released Democracy Index 2018 published by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) provides some insight to this question when compared to the 2018 Global Green Economy Index. The key takeaways: – Despite being one of the few countries registering as a “full democracy,” Australia has consistently ranked in the bottom quartile of the GGEI. Australia is the only “full democracy” where this is the case. – On the other hand, “authoritarian” countries like China – and –Ethiopia, Rwanda, and Cambodia to a lesser extent – perform quite well on the GGEI. However, the majority of countries in the bottom quartile of the GGEI are either “authoritarian” or “hybrid regime.” – While the link between weak governance and poor environmental stewardship in Africa is well documented, Kenya and Zambia both perform in the top quartile of the GGEI, despite having “hybrid regime” (far from full democracy) political structures. – The top GGEI performing countries generally mirror the top ones from the 2018 Democracy Index, most notably the Nordics, Germany and Switzerland. Access the data pack: Link (Excel file, 100 KB) |
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