Does Quality of Government and Trust Explain the Cross-National Variation in Public Support for Climate Policies?

45 Pages Posted: 7 Oct 2020

See all articles by Dragana Davidovic

Dragana Davidovic

University of Gothenburg

Niklas Harring

University of Gothenburg - Centre for Collective Action (CeCAR)

Date Written: February 1, 2019

Abstract

In accordance with the Paris agreement, the signing countries have undertaken to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, implying more government intervention to steer the behaviors of different actors with climate policy measures. However, states face very different possibilities for gaining support for such interventions, especially those targeting the consumption patterns of individual citizens, due to for example the variation in economic development, the quality of political institutions, and other country covariates. While most research on climate policy support has focused on individual factors, such as ideological position, values and socio-demographic factors, there are also studies out there showing that there is quite some variation in country support for various climate change policies. Using newly published data from the European Social Survey, we explore whether variation in climate policy support is associated with levels of quality of government (QoG) and individuals’ trust in political institutions and people in general, and if these associations vary across different types of climate policies. We find that QoG and generalized trust are positively linked to support for climate taxes, but we find no associations with support for climate subsidies and climate bans. Moreover, we find that political and institutional trust are more strongly linked to support for climate taxes than to support for climate subsidies and climate bans.

Keywords: Climate change, climate policy, quality of government, political trust, institutional trust, social trust.

Suggested Citation

Davidovic, Dragana and Harring, Niklas, Does Quality of Government and Trust Explain the Cross-National Variation in Public Support for Climate Policies? (February 1, 2019). CeCAR Working Paper Series No. 2, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3706867 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3706867

Dragana Davidovic (Contact Author)

University of Gothenburg ( email )

Viktoriagatan 30
Göteborg, 405 30
Sweden

Niklas Harring

University of Gothenburg - Centre for Collective Action (CeCAR) ( email )

Box 100, S-405 30
Gothenburg
Sweden

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