As environmental degradation becomes an increasingly pressing issue with widespread effects, states are taking on escalating responsibilities for addressing environmental problems. This development calls for a reintroduction of the state as a central object of study within the field of environmental politics. This paper argues that there are interesting parallels between the emergence of welfare states and the emerging ecostate. One important similarity is that both welfare states and ecostates are faced with the task of mitigating negative market externalities. The first part of the paper outlines a framework for analyzing and classifying emerging ecostates. The core argument is that since the primary task for the emerging ecostate is to provide and maintain environmental public goods, this places the state’s mix of environmental policy instruments, institutions, environmental expenditures, and green taxes —environmental governance regimes—at the center of the analysis. Further, ecostates, like welfare states, are likely to appear in distinct clusters or types. The second part of the paper develops a conceptual typology of environmental governance regimes. Using cross-national data, the typology is then used to classify a sample of 24 OECD countries into four types of ecostates.
