Who engages with environmental issues in a multi-level system? An exploratory analysis of German parties’ issue emphasis

Environmental policies are central to contemporary politics. Consequently, parties are incentivized to shape public discourse on environmental issues – a tendency particularly pronounced for left-wing parties. Within the European Union’s (EU) multi-level political system, this is a complex undertaking, as environmental policies are frequently decided and implemented across various political tiers. Utilizing a newly developed dictionary focused on environmental issues, we examine German parties’ emphasis on these issues in EU, federal, regional, and local election manifestos from 1989 to 2021. Our findings indicate that parties’ strategic considerations are the primary factors correlating with variations in their environmental issue emphasis across political levels. Particularly non-left-wing parties place less emphasis on environmental issues when facing electoral competition from successful Green parties at the same political level. Moreover, left-wing parties have a stronger incentive to emphasize environmental policies, including explicit state interventions. Yet, this electoral challenge is significant only within the same political level and not across different levels. Furthermore, the economic context in which parties compete is crucial: they tend to place greater emphasis on environmental issues when economic conditions are more favorable.