Democracy and green energy: Unveiling Italy's path to renewable success

Environmental degradation has become a pressing global challenge, increasing the urgency of transitioning to renewable energy. While economic drivers of renewable energy have been widely examined, political factors—especially democracy—remain underexplored. This study addresses this gap by examining whether democratic development can enhance renewable energy use, contributing to the political economy of energy transition. The analysis employs the Fourier-augmented autoregressive distributed lag method, which accounts for structural breaks and nonlinear dynamics. Using annual data for Italy from 1980 to 2022, the study evaluates the impact of democracy alongside economic growth, financial development, trade openness, and CO ₂ emissions. Empirical results show that democracy and economic growth significantly increase renewable energy consumption, whereas financial development and CO ₂ emissions have negative effects; trade openness is insignificant. These findings suggest that democratic governance promotes clean energy adoption through improved transparency and public participation, while financial systems need to be aligned with environmental goals. In this regard, the study offers both theoretical and empirical contributions by identifying democracy as a critical yet underexplored determinant of renewable energy and by applying an advanced econometric framework that improves the analysis of structural dynamics in energy transitions.