Democrats’ Development Of Climate Issues Since The Clinton Administration:Critical Juncture And Path Dependence

Climate change not only can affect production and life,but also concerns human survival.Therefore climate issues flow in the global political and economic system but keep vitality in different countries and regions notwithstanding the tragedy of the commons.As observations accumulate and studies progress,climate change has been put on the global agenda as the biggest non-traditional security challenge facing human development today.In the United States,the Democratic Party,which is in office now,owns a good reputation for climate issues.Exploring the causal mechanism of Democrats’ development of climate issues can provide a more in-depth perspective for China and the United States to carry out climate cooperation,seek green economic cooperation,facilitate global climate governance and operationalize a new model of major power relations.Climate change was a non-partisan issue but has evolved into a partisan issue owned by the Democratic Party since the Clinton administration.How did climate change develop into a partisan issue owned by Democrats?To answer this question,this paper introduces critical junctures and path dependence,two common analytical frameworks under the approach of historical institutionalism.Through process-tracing,this paper finds out Democrats’ two stages for the development of climate issues:1.The Choosing Stage.During this stage,Democrats acquired climate issue ownership because of climate actions of the key actor-the Clinton Administration.The Clinton administration’s climate actions represent the starting point for Democrats to obtain climate issues.The Clinton administration is a critical juncture for Democrats’ climate issue ownership.2.The Lock-in Stage.During this stage,Democrats’ climate issue ownership,which began to take shape in the Clinton administration was stabilized under the mechanism of inter-party and intra-party competitions.Given the Democratic Party’s development of climate issues,this paper attempts to provide a causal explanation for political parties’ issue ownership:1.At the critical juncture,the choices made by key actors who gain more power in the political party lead the party to acquire issue ownership;2.Issue ownership gradually stabilizes due to path dependence;3.As issue alignment takes shape and voter polarization emerges,issue ownership is locked-in.This causal explanation integrates synchronic and diachronic variables.For one thing,it responds to recent discussions of issue ownership theory and reveals the deep mechanism of the formation and evolution of issue ownership.For another,it provides a diachronic perspective and therefore complements the study of party issues,which is locked in on the path of rational choice theory.