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Climate policy support in the UK: An interaction of worldviews and policy types

Bretter, Christian and Schulz, Felix LU orcid (2024) In Policy Studies Journal
Abstract
Understanding predictors of climate policy support is important for tackling climate change. Previous research demonstrated that policy support is partially driven by cultural worldviews. Yet, treating policies as a homogeneous concept, this literature neglected the existence of different policy types. Making this distinction is important because each type implies a distinct solution to the same problem (i.e., carbon emissions) with varying degrees of retained freedom for agents. Given that diverging worldviews imply different preferences for individual freedom, we hypothesize an interaction between policy types and cultural worldviews on climate policy support: Policy support is stronger when the retained freedom of a policy type is... (More)
Understanding predictors of climate policy support is important for tackling climate change. Previous research demonstrated that policy support is partially driven by cultural worldviews. Yet, treating policies as a homogeneous concept, this literature neglected the existence of different policy types. Making this distinction is important because each type implies a distinct solution to the same problem (i.e., carbon emissions) with varying degrees of retained freedom for agents. Given that diverging worldviews imply different preferences for individual freedom, we hypothesize an interaction between policy types and cultural worldviews on climate policy support: Policy support is stronger when the retained freedom of a policy type is aligned with the worldview-­based preferences for such freedom. Using a representative sample of the UK population (N = 1991) and actual policy proposals of UK political parties, our results partly sup- port our hypothesized interaction. Although communitarian-egalitarians, compared to all other worldview groups, indicated stronger support across policy types, contrary to our hypothesis they showed their weakest support for command-­ and-control and their strongest for information-­ based policies.
Individualist-­ hierarchists, in contrast and in line with our argument, showed the weakest support for command-­ and-­ control policies and strongest support for voluntary policies. (Less)
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Contribution to journal
publication status
published
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in
Policy Studies Journal
publisher
Wiley
external identifiers
  • scopus:85207487723
ISSN
1541-0072
DOI
10.1111/psj.12570
language
English
LU publication?
no
id
93c7bbc6-3a41-48ce-b398-fa4b00bf68fd
date added to LUP
2025-01-27 16:50:39
date last changed
2025-04-22 10:05:23
@article{93c7bbc6-3a41-48ce-b398-fa4b00bf68fd,
  abstract     = {{Understanding predictors of climate policy support is important for tackling climate change. Previous research demonstrated that policy support is partially driven by cultural worldviews. Yet, treating policies as a homogeneous concept, this literature neglected the existence of different policy types. Making this distinction is important because each type implies a distinct solution to the same problem (i.e., carbon emissions) with varying degrees of retained freedom for agents. Given that diverging worldviews imply different preferences for individual freedom, we hypothesize an interaction between policy types and cultural worldviews on climate policy support: Policy support is stronger when the retained freedom of a policy type is aligned with the worldview-­based preferences for such freedom. Using a representative sample of the UK population (N = 1991) and actual policy proposals of UK political parties, our results partly sup- port our hypothesized interaction. Although communitarian-egalitarians, compared to all other worldview groups, indicated stronger support across policy types, contrary to our hypothesis they showed their weakest support for command-­ and-control and their strongest for information-­ based policies.<br/>Individualist-­ hierarchists, in contrast and in line with our argument, showed the weakest support for command-­ and-­ control policies and strongest support for voluntary policies.}},
  author       = {{Bretter, Christian and Schulz, Felix}},
  issn         = {{1541-0072}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{10}},
  publisher    = {{Wiley}},
  series       = {{Policy Studies Journal}},
  title        = {{Climate policy support in the UK: An interaction of worldviews and policy types}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/psj.12570}},
  doi          = {{10.1111/psj.12570}},
  year         = {{2024}},
}