Despite growing evidence of significant impacts from human-induced climate change, policy responses have been slow. Understanding this policy inertia has led to competing explanations, which either point to the need to build a consensual politics separated from economic partisanship, or which encourage solidarities between environmental and social movements and issues. This article analyses a recent successful mobilisation, leading to the passage of the Clean Energy Act in Australia, to explore the relationship between attitudes to environmental and social protection, particularly among the core constituency in favour of stronger climate action. Using social survey data from the Australian Election Study, the article finds evidence of independent associations between prioritising environmental concerns and support for welfare state expansion, and a realignment of materialist and post-materialist values. This we argue is consistent with Polanyian analysis that posits a link between social and environmental causes based on resistance to commodification.
Australian Government (2011) An Overview of the Clean Energy Legislative Package. Canberra: Australian Government.
2.
Australian Greens (2007) The Greens: Policy Snapshots. Canberra: Australian Greens.
3.
BaileyI.MacGillI.PasseyR.CompstonH. (2012) ‘The Fall (and Rise) of Carbon Pricing in Australia: A Political Strategy Analysis of the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme’, Environmental Politics21(5): 691–711.
4.
BarrN. (2001) The Welfare State as Piggy Bank: Information, Risk, Uncertainty, and the Role of the State. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
5.
BeanC.McAllisterI.WarhurstJ. (eds) (1990) The Greening of Australian Politics: The 1990 Federal Election. Sydney: Longman Cheshire.
6.
BeanC.GowD.McAllisterI. (1998) Australian Election Study, 1998 (computer file). Canberra: Australian Social Science Data Archive, The Australian National University.
7.
BeanC.McAllisterI.GibsonR.K.GowD. (2001) Australian Election Study, 2001 (computer file). Canberra: Australian Social Science Data Archive, The Australian National University.
8.
BeanC.McAllisterI.GowD. (2008) Australian Election Study, 2007 (computer file). Canberra: Australian Social Science Data Archive, The Australian National University.
9.
BeanC.McAllisterI.PietschJ.GibsonR.K. (2014) Australian Election Study, 2013 (computer file). Canberra: Australian Data Archive, The Australian National University.
10.
BlockF. (1994) ‘The Roles of the State in the Economy’, pp. 691–710 in SmelserN.J.SwedbergR. (eds) The Handbook of Economic Sociology. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
11.
BlockF. (2008) ‘Polanyi’s Double Movement and the Reconstruction of Critical Theory’, Papers in Political Economy 38. URL (consulted 9July 2013): http://interventionseconomiques.revues.org/274
12.
BurawoyM. (2010) ‘From Polanyi to Pollyanna: The False Optimism of Global Labor Studies’, Global Labour Journal1(2): 301–13.
13.
BurgmannV. (2000) ‘The Social Responsibility of Labour Versus the Environmental Impact of Property Capital: The Australian Green Bans Movement’, Environmental Politics9(2): 78–101.
14.
BurgmannV.BaerH. (2012) Climate Politics and the Climate Movement in Australia. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press.
15.
BurgmannV.McNaughtonC.PenneyJ. (2002) Unions and the Environment. Melbourne: Australian Conservation Foundation/Australian Council of Trade Unions.
16.
CampbellA.ConverseP.MillerW.StokesD. (1960) The American Voter. New York: John Wiley and Sons.
17.
ChubbP. (2014) Power Failure: The Inside Story of Climate Politics under Rudd and Gillard. Melbourne: Black Inc.
18.
CrowleyK. (2013) ‘Irresistible Force? Achieving Carbon Pricing in Australia’, Australian Journal of Politics and History59(3): 368–81.
19.
DriesenD.M. (1998) ‘Is Emissions Trading an Economic Incentive Program? Replacing the Command and Control/Economic Incentive Dichotomy’, Washing and Lee Law Review55: 289–350.
20.
DryzekJ. (2008) ‘The Ecological Crisis of the Welfare State’, Journal of European Social Policy18(4): 334–37.
21.
DuvergerM. (1954) Political Parties: Their Organization and Activity in the Modern State. London: Methuen.
22.
EckersleyR. (1992) Environmentalism and Political Theory. New York: State University of New York Press.
23.
EconomouN.M. (1993) ‘Accordism and the Environment: The Resource Assessment Commission and National Environmental Policy-making’, Australian Journal of Political Science28(3): 399–412.
24.
Esping-AndersenG. (1990) The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism. Cambridge: Polity Press.
25.
FitzpatrickT. (1998) ‘The Implications of Ecological Thought for Social Welfare’, Critical Social Policy18(54): 5–26.
26.
GarnautR. (2008) The Climate Change Review. Canberra: Australian Government Printing Service.
27.
GibsonR.K.McAllisterI.BeanC.GowD. (2004) Australian Election Study, 2004 (computer file). Canberra: Australian Social Science Data Archive, The Australian National University.
28.
GiddensA. (2009) The Politics of Climate Change. London: Polity Press.
29.
GoughI. (2008) ‘Introduction: Climate Change and Social Policy’, Journal of European Social Policy18(4): 325–31.
HabermasJ. (1981) ‘New Social Movements’, Telos49: 33–7.
32.
HallP.A.SoskiceD. (eds) (2001) Varieties of Capitalism: The Institutional Foundations of Comparative Advantage. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
33.
HamiltonC. (2007) Scorcher: The Dirty Politics of Climate Change. Melbourne: Black Inc.
34.
InglehartR. (1977) The Silent Revolution: Changing Values and Political Styles among Western Publics. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
35.
InglehartR. (1997) Modernization and Postmodernization: Cultural, Economic and Political Change in 43 Societies. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
36.
IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) (2013) Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis. Working Group I Contribution to the Fifth Assessment Report of the IPCC. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
37.
JonesR.McAllisterI.DenemarkD.GowD. (1993) Australian Election Study, 1993 (computer file). Canberra: Australian Social Science Data Archive, The Australian National University.
38.
JonesR.McAllisterI.GowD. (1996) Australian Election Study, 1996 (computer file). Canberra: Australian Social Science Data Archive, The Australian National University.
39.
KevinT. (2009) Crunch Time: Using and Abusing Keynes to Fight the Twin Crises of our Era. Melbourne: Scribe.
40.
LazarusR.J. (2009) ‘Super Wicked Problems and Climate Change: Restraining the Present to Liberate the Future’, Cornell Law Review94: 1153–233.
41.
McAllisterI. (1994) ‘Dimensions of Environmentalism: Public Opinion, Political Activism and Party Support in Australia’, Environmental Politics3(1): 22–42.
42.
McAllisterI.BeanC. (1990) ‘Explaining Labor’s Victory’, pp. 155–80 in BeanC.McAllisterI.WarhurstJ. (eds) The Greening of Australian Politics: The 1990 Federal Election. Sydney: Longman Cheshire.
43.
McAllisterI.JonesR.PapadakisE.GowD. (1990) Australian Election Study, 1990 (computer file). Canberra: Australian Social Science Data Archive, The Australian National University.
44.
McAllisterI.BeanC.GibsonR.K.PietschJ. (2011) Australian Election Study, 2010 (computer file). Canberra: Australian Data Archive, The Australian National University.
45.
MeadowcroftJ. (2005) ‘From Welfare State to Ecostate’, pp. 3–23 in BarryJ.EckersleyR. (eds) The State and the Global Ecological Crisis. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
PapadakisE.GrantR. (2005) ‘The Politics of “Light Handed Regulation”: “New” Environmental Policy Instruments in Australia’, Environmental Politics12(1): 27–50.
48.
PearseG. (2007) High and Dry: John Howard, Climate Change and the Selling of Australia’s Future. Sydney: Penguin.
49.
PolanyiK. (1944) The Great Transformation. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.
50.
RootesC. (2008) ‘The First Climate Change Election? The Federal Election of24November2007’, Environmental Politics17(3): 473–80.
51.
RosewarneS.GoodmanJ.PearseR. (2013) Climate Action Upsurge: The Ethnography of Climate Movement Politics. London: Routledge.
52.
SchaferA.StreeckW. (2013) Politics in the Age of Austerity. Cambridge: Polity Press.
53.
Spies-ButcherB. (2012) ‘Voting Behaviour’, pp. 43–7 in SmithR.VromenA.CookI. (eds) Contemporary Politics in Australia: Theories, Issues and Debates. Melbourne: Cambridge University Press.
54.
TorresR. (2008) ‘The Social Impact of Policies to Address Climate Change: A Review of the Issues’, International Labour Review147(2–3): 275–9.
55.
TranterB. (2012) ‘Social and Political Influence on Environmentalist in Australia’, Journal of Sociology online first.
56.
TranterB. (2013) ‘The Great Divide: Political Candidate and Voter Polarisation over Global Warming in Australia’, Australian Journal of Politics and History59(3): 397–413.
57.
TranterB.K.WesternM. (2010) ‘Overstating Value Change: Question Ordering in the Postmaterial Values Index’, European Sociological Review26(5): 571–83.
58.
WalkerP. (1989) ‘The United Tasmania Group: An Analysis of the World’s First Green Party’, in HayP.EckersleyR.HollowayG. (eds) Environmental Politics in Australia and New Zealand. Hobart: University of Tasmania.
59.
WalkerK.J. (2002) ‘Environmental Policy in Australia’, pp. 249–93 in DesaiU. (ed.) Environmental Politics and Policies in Industrialized Countries. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
60.
WilkinsonR.PickettK. (2009) The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better. London: Allen Lane.
61.
WilsonS.Spies-ButcherB. (2011) ‘When Labour Makes a Difference: Union Mobilization and the 2007 Federal Election in Australia’, British Journal of Industrial Relations49(S2): s306–s331.
62.
WilsonS.Spies-ButcherB.StebbingA. (2009) ‘Targets and Taxes: Explaining the Welfare Orientations of the Australian Public’, Social Policy and Administration43: 508–25.
