This paper compares the development of’ welfare states’ and emergent ‘environmental states’. Can we identify certain commonalities and contrasts between these two developments? To address this question I use an earlier framework for understanding welfare state developments (Gough 2008) which posits five drivers of welfare state development - the ‘five I’s’: Industrial capitalism, Interests, Institutions, Ideas/Ideologies, and International Influences. The first of four sections presents theories and evidence on the five drivers of welfare states across the OECD, distinguishing the periods before and after 1980. I also present the best evidence on the respective importance of these factors. Even after 1980, this favours the role of domestic institutional features over global structures and processes. The second section uses this framework to evaluate the recent expansion of environmental states, and trawls available comparative research to assess their respective importance. The conclusion is that the drivers of welfare states and eco-states have been remarkably similar. Both can be broadly explained in terms of institutional structures, both economic and political. Yet there are also sharp contrasts between the emergence of welfare states and environmental states, which are examined in the third section: a) Green and climate change agendas have risen since 1980 in the era of dominant neo-liberal ideas, financialised capitalism, pro-market sentiments and denigration of state capacities, b) Eco-policies have to be built on top of existing welfare political and fiscal commitments and in competition with them, c) Climate change threatens policy integration by setting the idea of limits at its heart, d) Much environmental action is inevitably global in scope, unlike the clear national focus of welfare systems, e) The post- 2008 crisis may permanently shift the landscape of European capitalism and policy-making against both welfare states and environmental states. The conclusion attempts to synthesise some of these conflicting findings.
