The Political Economy of Energy Policy: Stakeholder versus Voter Preferences in Political Decision-Making Processes

Dear Colleagues,

The role of the energy sector both as a source of and a solution for climate change has become increasingly salient in the past decades; yet, there are many political-economic challenges to the adoption and implementation of new energy policies/technologies both domestically and internationally. Against this background, we have seen a surge of studies on the political economy of energy policy. Many of these studies have empirically identified sources of public acceptance of energy policies, technologies, and decision-making processes to adopt such policies and technologies. At the same time, there is another important and influential set of actors in policy-making, so-called energy stakeholders; i.e., actors that represent group interests, such as interest groups, energy companies, NGOs, local governments, etc. From game-theoretic analyses of lobbying activities to empirical analyses of stakeholder influence on policy-making, we have seen a number of contributions in this area as well.

However, in reality, neither public acceptance (or the median voter preference over policy/technology proposals) nor direct influences of powerful stakeholders alone can be the single determinant of national or international political decisions. Building on existing studies, it is time to bring the two actors back in and revisit the source of policy and technology adoption more holistically. This Special Issue welcomes studies that address relative roles of voters and stakeholders in national and international political decision-making processes. This question becomes particularly relevant when the average public sentiment and the policy preference of powerful stakeholders are in conflict. The Special Issue welcomes not only empirical analyses, but also formal theoretical models and conceptual frameworks that derive empirically testable hypotheses.

Prof. Dr. Aya Kachi
Guest Editor

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