'I Pay Enough Taxes Already!’ Applying Economic Voting Models to Environmental Referendums
Social Science Quarterly, Vol. 89, No. 5, pp. 1336-1355, December 2008
32 Pages Posted: 4 Jul 2011
Date Written: July 4, 2006
Abstract
Objectives. Models of economic voting have rarely been applied to referendum votes. We fill this gap by testing citizens' voting behavior on environmental policy in relation to their perception of the business cycle and general orientation towards politics. Thus, the study examines the personal, institutional and economic determinants of vote choice on 36 environmental bills from 1983 to 2004 in Switzerland.
Methods. We apply a logistic hierarchical model, where individual characteristics on level-1 are nested within contextual determinants situated on level-2.
Results. We confirm the crucial importance of the individual-level variables education, political affïnity, car ownership and urbanity. Classifying the electorate into five groups, using open-ended survey questions about respondents' reasons for approval or dismissal of the bills, allows for finer hypotheses testing. We show that the individuals' positive perception of their personal current economic conditions has a positive effect on the likelihood of supporting the proposals. In turn, we prove the negative, constraining effect of deteriorating macroeconomic conditions on approval rates.
Conclusions. By applying economic voting models to referendum analyses we advance the understanding of citizens' vote choice on environmental ballots, we show the role of context and we propose an original typology of voters' general orientation towards politics.
Keywords: green tax reform, ecological tax, energy tax, direct democracy, referendum, switzerland
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?
Recommended Papers
-
By Zhongxiang Zhang and Andrea Baranzini
-
The Public Acceptance of Green Taxes: 2 Million Voters Express Their Opinion
-
Lobbying Against Environmental Regulation vs. Lobbying for Loopholes
By Andreas Polk and Armin Schmutzler
-
Tax or No Tax? Preferences for Climate Policy Attributes
By Runar Brännlund and Lars Persson
-
What Does it Take to Sell Environmental Policy? An Empirical Analysis of Referendum Data
By Daniel Halbheer, Sarah Niggli, ...
-
Gradual Introduction of Coercive Instruments in Climate Policy
-
Carbon Taxes in the United States: The Context for the Future
-
The Political Economy of Australia's Climate Change and Clean Energy Legislation: Lessons Learned
By Thomas A. Spencer, Carole-anne Sénit, ...