In this paper we explore the potentials of drawing on research on the challenges of contemporary welfare states and social welfare reforms in order to gain a deeper understanding of the conditions for an ecological state to emerge. Political ecology provides different conceptions of an ecological state and ways to green the state (e.g. green liberalism, environmental welfarism, deliberative ecological states), while comparativist studies on environmental politics trace patterns of policy change and institutionalisation in different countries that provide insights on the greening of states in practice. We argue, however, that there is a need to widen the scope and increase cross-fertilization between environmental politics and research on broader social and political transformations.
An interesting analogy could be made between the development of an ecological state and the historical genesis of the welfare state. It can also be argued that there is a correlation between the empathetic (welfare) state and the green state. However, since the welfare state is in itself in a time of crisis this raises critical questions about the implications for the evolution of the ecological state. How are we to understand the revitalization of the state in light of key contradictions in welfare state developments, for instance the financial crisis of the modern welfare state, increasing inequalities and the liberalization of welfare policies? In this sense, the marketization of environmental policy and individualization of ecological responsibilities could be understood in analogy with the deregulation and privatization of welfare state services. In a similar vein, future welfare state developments are of crucial importance for the possible emergence of an ecological state and for understanding the compatibilities between efforts to strengthen state competences and capacities for governing societies towards ecologically sustainable and socially just ends, e.g. in terms of legitimizing and organizing both ecological and social aspirations.
