This thesis examines the accelerated success of Spain’s green transition, focusing on the expansion of renewable energy generation and the decline of coal-fired energy from 2019 to 2024. Using a...Show moreThis thesis examines the accelerated success of Spain’s green transition, focusing on the expansion of renewable energy generation and the decline of coal-fired energy from 2019 to 2024. Using a historical institutionalism lens, the research analyzes the drivers behind these changes, emphasizing the role of state capacity (fiscal, legal, and collective), international and EU agreements, partisanship, and state-business dynamics. Applying a process-tracing, least-likely case study methodology and diverse data sources (including governmental documents, news articles, international and national statistics, and interviews), this paper chronologically traces Spain’s green energy transformation from a socio-technical systems and public policy approach. The empirical findings show the importance of fiscal and legal capacity to make the transition profitable, collective capacity and partisanship to deliver green public goods, strong state-business collaboration to mobilize private sector funding, and international and EU agreements to set ambitious targets shaping national policies. By exploring the interplay between political struggles and institutional contexts, this thesis highlights the complexities of implementing large-scale clean energy policies in Spain, and how and why path-dependent situations can reverse over time to enable positive change.Show less
This thesis contributes to industrial policy by studying conditionality – the conditions attached to state aid – and linking this to the concepts of state capacity and political salience. First,...Show moreThis thesis contributes to industrial policy by studying conditionality – the conditions attached to state aid – and linking this to the concepts of state capacity and political salience. First, this thesis addresses conditionality issues in the context of climate change, as the literature to date has focused on other development challenges such as industrial upgrading. Second, this thesis contributes to the literature by focusing on the study of conditionality in relation to advanced industrialised economies, as the existing literature is mainly focused on developing countries. In particular, this thesis aims to highlight the types of conditions that are relevant in this case compared to those identified in the literature. Third, the thesis emphasises the importance of the politics of conditionality, or the political will to activate existing state capacity. The thesis shows that an advanced economy such as the Netherlands has the state capacity to impose a policy of strong conditionality on business. In the studied case, however, this capacity has been activated by political salience, which has created a social coalition in support of this policy to impose strong conditionality.Show less
In postwar economic development, Japan has chosen a different way to neoliberalism. The government did not “step back” from the market or rely on the action of the “invisible hand”; it played an...Show moreIn postwar economic development, Japan has chosen a different way to neoliberalism. The government did not “step back” from the market or rely on the action of the “invisible hand”; it played an important role itself in economic development. Under the guidance and intervention of the state, Japan became an economic miracle and the most successful industrialized economy in the world, then experienced a collapse followed by great stagnation. Simultaneously, while Japan used to have the role of driver and leader of the regional economy before the collapse, it lost its advantageous position when it became stuck in great stagnation. Japan’s economic status changed drastically accompanied with its changing economic power. For an economy like Japan that cooperated highly with the state, the capacity of the state would have a huge impact on the economy, on both economic power and economic status. Japan’s changing economic power and status in the region became a mirror to reflect the changing state capacity in Japan.Show less
