West European politics has been reshaped by the Education politicization of a new divide: environmentalism versus productivism. While existing scholarship since the 1960s mostly assumes the emergence of a single, unified cultural divide, this article goes back to the model developed by Lipset and Rokkan (Citation1967) and distinguishes two new cleavages, Ecologism/Productivism and Identity/Cosmopolitanism, both resulting from different revolutions. Building on Bartolini and Mair's seminal framework, this analysis also introduces a fourth dimension to the definition of cleavage: in fully mobilized electoral societies, it encompasses sociological, ideological, and organizational dimensions, as well as a policy-making component. The study then delineates and illustrates the core features of the Ecologism/Productivism divide with data on public opinion, party positions, and green parties' development. This conceptualization offers a new lens for political scientists and policymakers, illuminating how the environmental conflict reshapes societies and party systems, interacts with other ideological and social conflicts, and influences the trajectory of West European polities in the age of the Anthropocene.

With over a hundred entries written by nearly 150 researchers, this dictionary testifies to the wealth of work devoted to political ecology and its relevance in deciphering the contemporary transformations of our societies. From "Agriculture" to "Sacrifice Zone", it exposes the plurality of concepts, ideas and results developed by political science and related disciplines to think about the relationships between humans and their environment, and to show their evolutions and political consequences. Revealing the liveliness of scientific debates often linked to social and political issues, it contributes to broadening the space for reflection on ecology as we enter a period of radical uncertainty about the effects of environmental crises.

Ecology and climate change have become growing sources of political and social tension. The June 2024 wave of the ELIPSS survey, devoted to the European elections, questions the role of ecology as a structuring factor in voting. These elections illustrate the sharp decline of political ecology, both in the debate of ideas and at the electoral level. In France, as in several other Western European countries, the rise of the radical right has often been at the expense of environmentalist parties. Their decline compared to 2019 has shifted the balance of power in the European Parliament, calling into question the pro-environmental compromise of the Green Deal. Although less visible than five years ago, environmentalism has nevertheless helped to shape certain voting behaviors. This Focus explores how the divide between environmentalism and productivism influenced the choices of French voters.