Wageningen University & Research ECONOMIC TRANSFORMATIONS TOWARDS SUSTAINABILITY The views and strategies of European green political parties May, 2021 MSc Climate Studies Julie Bos Environmental Policy Track Supervisor: Eira Carballo Cárdenas & Myanna Lahsen 2 Preface As most students of the Master Climate Studies, I started this program with the ambition to gain knowledge and skills that would help me to contribute to solving the climate change crisis. During my first year I got more and more intrigued by the question whether it would be feasible to solve the climate crisis within our current economic system. I investigated alternative economic systems and discussed with my fellow students the critiques on current trajectories. It made me realize that investigating alternative systems is only part of the puzzle. Including thinking about transformation pathways towards sustainable economic systems is crucial in our quest to a sustainable society. Therefore, I started my thesis with the question ‘how can we transform our economic system in a sustainable economy?’ Time taught me that this question is too big to ask for a master thesis, resulting in ‘a bit’ longer thesis process than initially anticipated. However, the fact that these big questions are incredibly difficult to answer, doesn’t mean we shouldn’t ask them. And, although I considerably narrowed down my research question, I was encouraged to meet so many people during this thesis process thinking about these big questions and making it their mission to help realize the needed transformations. By narrowing down my research question I hope I was able to contribute to a small piece of the puzzle of the transformation towards a sustainable economic system. I wouldn’t have been able to make this contribution without the incredibly valuable inputs of my respondents. When I decided to interview green political party members, I expected it to be difficult to get them to participate because of their busy agendas. This wasn’t an empty worry because it took me over 400 emails to get enough respondents. But this makes me even more thankful for all the green party members who took the time to participate in this thesis. Their busy agendas are a result of their persistent efforts to fight for a more sustainable world. I want to thank the green party members for the inspiring conversations, your passion was highly encouraging for me. I also would like to thank my supervisors Eira Carballo Cárdenas and Myanna Lahsen. I couldn’t have wished for better supervisors for this process. Myanna supervised the first half of my thesis, encouraging me to think outside the box, go my own path and stay critical. Eira guided me through the second half of my thesis, helping me to turn my findings in a coherent story and giving me the last push to see this thesis through to the end. Finally, I want to thank my friend, family and partner for their endless support. Thinking of everyone that helped me through this long thesis process makes me grateful to be surrounded by so many amazing people. Arabella, Emma, Lieke, Molly and Sam provided invaluable feedback on my chapters. Hester, Maike, Sanne and Noortje were always available to discuss my ideas. My parents and sister were only one call away to listen to all my thesis frustrations. And lastly, my love Martijn who is always there for me. 3 Abstract The current Western economic system is unsustainable. The neoliberal capitalist economy has led to the transgression of planetary boundaries, an increase in social inequalities, and instable economic and financial markets. Therefore, the economic system needs to be transformed in a sustainable direction. The hegemony and depoliticization of the current economic system make this transformation highly complex. Green political parties are at the forefront of the fight for a more sustainable economy. This thesis aims to contribute to the understanding of the political processes of economic transformation towards sustainability by researching the views and strategies of green parties on economic transformations. With the help of the Q methodology the views of 12 European green parties on economic transformations towards sustainability were mapped. Interviews were conducted with five of these green parties to get a better understanding of the strategies they propose to achieve their envisioned economic transformations. This study finds that there is common ground among the green parties in their critique on endless economic growth and the neoliberalization of the economic system. All parties propose to transform to an economic system in which human wellbeing and ecological limits are front and center. However, the parties diverge in their views on which economic transformations are needed to achieve a sustainable economy. By exploring the views of European green political parties this thesis extrapolated three viewpoints on economic transformations: ‘towards human wellbeing in recognition of ecological limits’, ‘beyond the system of growth’ and ‘greening the economy’. These viewpoints diverge in their radicality of change proposed. The green parties are struggling in defining their strategies on how pragmatic or radical they should be. Most green parties take on a more pragmatic approach because they believe becoming a governing party enables them to take the necessary incremental steps. Some parties take a more idealistic approach, aiming for radical change. In their views and strategies green parties politicize the neoliberal capitalist economic system to different extents, signaling the need for further research into alternative economic systems. 4 Table of Content Preface ............................................................................................................................................................ 3 Abstract ........................................................................................................................................................... 4 List of figures and tables ................................................................................................................................ 6 1. Introduction ................................................................................................................................................ 8 1.1 Objective & Relevance ....................................................................................................................... 12 1.2 Research Questions ............................................................................................................................ 14 2. Conceptual Framework ........................................................................................................................... 15 2.1 Transformations towards Sustainability ............................................................................................ 16 2.1.1 Conceptualizing transformations toward sustainability system .............................................. 17 2.2 Economic transformations towards sustainability............................................................................ 20 2.2.1 Defining and characterizing economic transformations and the economic system ............. 20 2.2.2 Economic worldviews, meta-discourses and different economic transformations ............... 20 2.3 Green environmental politics ............................................................................................................ 26 2.3.1 Green political ideology ............................................................................................................. 26 2.3.2 Ecological Modernization .......................................................................................................... 27 2.3.3 Green political parties ................................................................................................................ 28 2.3.4 Growth debates in politics ......................................................................................................... 29 3. Methodology ............................................................................................................................................ 32 3.1 Research design ................................................................................................................................. 32 3.2 Research population and respondent selection .............................................................................. 32 3.2.1 Party selection ............................................................................................................................. 33 3.2.2 Party members selection ............................................................................................................ 36 3.3 Data collection .................................................................................................................................... 36 3.3.1 Q methodology ........................................................................................................................... 37 3.3.2 Interviews ..................................................................................................................................... 39 3.3.3 Documents .................................................................................................................................. 39 3.4 Data analysis ....................................................................................................................................... 39