Two level connectors in German climate politics

This paper investigates the role of so-called “two-level” connectors in the German climate policy network. These connectors are organizations or individuals strongly linked to both the formulation of the international commitments and the national policy level. Looking at these connections is crucial since the commitments as formulated in the national determined contributions (NDCs) must be translated into national policies. Thus, the degree to which a country is able to harmonize its climate policy with its international promises strongly depends on the domestic policy process and the actors therein. The prevailing constellations (i.e. the degree of actor involvement at different levels and sectors) and the constellation of actor’s preferences (i.e. the degree of belief conflict in a policy subsystem) determine the level of policy harmonization by influencing the political feasibility of climate policies. In line with policy network literature, we argue that policy adoption is not a decision by single actors, but the outcome of government agencies and stakeholders coordinating their activities and cooperation to advocate for their interests. They form a policy network of interactions and venues of participation. If this policy network is dominated by a small number of key actors, policy adoption is in the hands of few, and thus, happens more in a top-down fashion, simplifying the policy process. In contrast, when many actors compete for influence, decision-making processes are usually more complex (e.g. in federal or corporatist political systems). Hence, we expect that the degree of vertical policy harmonization is low in complex and conflictive policy networks. In contrast, in policy networks where two-level connectors are highly central, well connected, belong to the category of state actors, or are perceived to be influential we expect the degree of harmonization to be higher. We study these expectations for the German case. Empirically, we draw on a survey of the climate policy network conducted in 2021. Further, we use data from the vertical climate policy harmonization index to measure the gap between Germany’s international commitments and national policies. We test our expectations using descriptive network statistics, such as centrality, and inferential network models.