Green Politics

Abstract

Whilst Scottish environmental policies feature many characteristics typical for modern systems of governance, addressing similar environmental challenges and wicked problems of the twenty-first century, many environmental policy responses in Scotland are nevertheless distinctly contextual and often driven by the ongoing constitutional debate whilst also being ambitious, if not pioneering. This is not to say that Scotland leads in environmental politics on all fronts; where coalition networks and other factors may not promise the desired results, Scottish decision makers shy away from a determined green approach. This chapter therefore argues that in order to understand green politics in Scotland as a whole we need to study environmental policies carefully and individually and take into consideration a number of factors (or parameters) such as resource availability and, more importantly, the strategic consideration of whether or not a co-framing between green ambitions and national identity can be achieved successfully.

‘Enter parliament but never become part of it’: How have the Greens in the United Kingdom approached opposition?

“…It is this broader political context which has defined much of SGP legislators’ room for manoeuvre in opposition. Thus, while SGP MSPs have also directly opposed Labour, Liberal Democrat and SNP executives (Bennie, 2019: 184; Brown, 2020: 363) at times, their generally relatively consensual strategy would have been harder for them to sustain if the Scottish Conservatives, for example, had been in office. In contrast, since 2010, GPEW representatives in the UK Parliament have only faced ideologically distant Conservative-led governments.…”