Shifting environmental pollution abroad contributes to lower emissions in democracies

Shifting environmental pollution abroad contributes to lower emissions in democracies

Many studies suggest that democracies have, on average, a better environmental protection record than authoritarian states. But this debate is far from resolved. Hence, we take a closer look at an overlooked factor that may shed new light on the ambiguous claims and findings of the democracy-environment nexus: pollution offshoring. We hypothesize that democracies can improve their record and become “greener” not only through genuinely domestic e…