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Salient to Whom? The Positioning of German Political Parties on Agricultural Pollutants in Water Bodies
Summary
Researchers conducted a qualitative content analysis of German political party election manifestos from 1998 to 2018 to examine party positions on agricultural pollutants in water bodies, finding that parties' stances are primarily shaped by environmental and economic ideological dimensions rather than technical evidence. The study concludes that conflicting ideological positions between parties explain Germany's repeated failure to adopt effective integrated policy measures despite public salience of water pollution issues.
Scholars have increasingly argued for an integration of policies on agriculture and water due to their strong interlinkage. The entry of agricultural pollutants into water represents one of the main pressures on Europe’s ground and surface waters. This not only poses a risk to the environment and human health but also jeopardizes meeting the targets set by the EU Water Framework Directive. Research on the political agenda setting has shown that issue salience is key for triggering policy change. Nevertheless, Germany has repeatedly failed to adopt adequate policy measures despite the salience of the issue among the German public and increasing pressure by the EU. In this study, I shed light on the positioning of political parties in Germany on agricultural pollutants to explain the absence of policy change. More specifically, I ask whether there is an ideological division between political parties that hampers the adoption of effective, integrated policy measures. A qualitative content analysis of election manifestos published between 1998 and 2018 finds that political parties’ policy positions are predominantly influenced by their placement on an environmental and an economic ideological dimension. As a result, political parties in Germany advocate conflictive policy approaches, which is detrimental to the adoption of effective policy measures.
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