scholarly journals Bridging the ideological gap? How fairness perceptions mediate the effect of revenue recycling on public support for carbon taxes in the United States, Canada and Germany

2021 ◽  
Vol 38 (5) ◽  
pp. 529-554
Author(s):  
Sverker C. Jagers ◽  
Erick Lachapelle ◽  
Johan Martinsson ◽  
Simon Matti
2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (9) ◽  
pp. eaax3323 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liam F. Beiser-McGrath ◽  
Thomas Bernauer

Carbon taxes are widely regarded as a potentially effective and economically efficient policy instrument for decarbonizing the global energy supply and thus limiting global warming. The main obstacle is political feasibility because of opposition from citizens and industry. Earmarking revenues from carbon taxation for spending that benefits citizens (i.e., revenue recycling) might help policy makers escape this political impasse. On the basis of choice experiments with representative samples of citizens in Germany and the United States, we examine whether revenue recycling could mitigate two key obstacles to achieving sufficient public support for carbon taxes: (i) declines in support as taxation levels increase and (ii) concerns over the international economic level playing field. For both countries, we find that revenue recycling could help achieve majority support for carbon tax levels of up to $50 to $70 per metric ton of carbon, but only if industrialized countries join forces and adopt similar carbon taxes.


Author(s):  
James L. Gibson ◽  
Michael J. Nelson

We have investigated the differences in support for the U.S. Supreme Court among black, Hispanic, and white Americans, catalogued the variation in African Americans’ group attachments and experiences with legal authorities, and examined how those latter two factors shape individuals’ support for the U.S. Supreme Court, that Court’s decisions, and for their local legal system. We take this opportunity to weave our findings together, taking stock of what we have learned from our analyses and what seem like fruitful paths for future research. In the process, we revisit Positivity Theory. We present a modified version of the theory that we hope will guide future inquiry on public support for courts, both in the United States and abroad.


2021 ◽  
pp. 215336872110389
Author(s):  
Andrew J. Baranauskas

In the effort to prevent school shootings in the United States, policies that aim to arm teachers with guns have received considerable attention. Recent research on public support for these policies finds that African Americans are substantially less likely to support them, indicating that support for arming teachers is a racial issue. Given the racialized nature of support for punitive crime policies in the United States, it is possible that racial sentiment shapes support for arming teachers as well. This study aims to determine the association between two types of racial sentiment—explicit negative feelings toward racial/ethnic minority groups and racial resentment—and support for arming teachers using a nationally representative data set. While explicit negative feelings toward African Americans and Hispanics are not associated with support for arming teachers, those with racial resentments are significantly more likely to support arming teachers. Racial resentment also weakens the effect of other variables found to be associated with support for arming teachers, including conservative ideology and economic pessimism. Implications for policy and research are discussed.


2013 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 195-212
Author(s):  
Matthew Ward

Advances in social movement research conceptualise micromobilisation as – at least – a two-step sequential process in which willingness to participate must first be generated and then translated into actual participation. However, such research often ignores a more fundamental first step in this process: the generation of movement support. I address this gap by drawing on a nationally representative sample of adults in the United States – who either sympathised with or opposed anti-immigration activism – to identify individual attributes differentiating anti-immigration movement supporters and non-supporters. Perceptions of economic threat, waning confidence in political leadership, and prejudicial cultural beliefs about Latinos represent attributes differentiated movement supporters from non-supporters. Power devaluation theory is used as an overarching framework to meaningfully interpret these results. More generally, I argue that grievances play an important, yet under theorised role in jumpstarting conservative micromobilisation and that principles from power devaluation theory can help us understand the differentiation of movement support, irrespective of a social movement's political orientation.


Author(s):  
Matthew G.T. Denney ◽  
Ramon Garibaldo Valdez

Abstract Context: Carceral institutions are among the largest clusters of COVID-19 in the United States. As outbreaks have spread throughout prisons and detention centers, detainees have organized collectively to demand life-saving measures. Chief among these demands has been the call for decarceration: the release of detainees and inmates to prevent exposure to COVID-19. This paper theorizes the compounding racial vulnerability that has led to such a marked spread behind bars, mainly among race-class subjugated communities. Methods: We use journalistic sources and administrative data to provide an in-depth account of the spread of COVID-19 in American correctional facilities and of the mobilization to reduce contagions. We also use two survey experiments to describe public support for harm reduction and decarceration demands and measure the effects of information about (a) racial inequalities in prison, and (b) poor conditions inside migrant detention centers. Findings: We find that only one-third to one-half of respondents believe that response to COVID-19 in prisons and immigrant detention centers should be a high priority. We also find that Americans are much more supportive of harm reduction measures like improved sanitation than of releasing people from prisons and detention centers. Information about racial disparities increases support for releasing more people from prison. We do not find any significant effect of information about poor conditions in migrant detention centers. Conclusions: The conditions in prisons and migrant detention centers during the pandemic—and public opinion about them—highlight the realities of compounding racialized vulnerability in the United States.


Author(s):  
Barry G. Rabe

The use of taxes to elevate the price of popular commodities in order to reduce consumption and risks related to use did not originate with carbon taxes. Excise taxes on tobacco have been used aggressively by governments in the United States and beyond in recent decades to achieve significant reductions in smoking. Fossil fuel use has long been deemed by diverse economists as a viable target for a sequel, leading to innumerable reports and scholarly arguments making the case for a carbon price. This can take the form of either a direct tax on the carbon content of fossil fuels or a cap-and-trade system that allows for purchase of rights to release emissions at a price. Both are thought to offer effective paths to reduce emissions in a cost-effective manner.


2017 ◽  
Vol 49 (4) ◽  
pp. 1407-1429 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luca Bernardi ◽  
James Adams

Issue ownership theory posits that when social welfare is electorally salient, left-wing parties gain public support by rhetorically emphasizing social welfare issues. There is less research, however, on whether left-wing governing parties benefit from increasing social welfare spending. That is, it is not known whether leftist governments gain from acting on the issues they rhetorically emphasize. This article presents arguments that voters will not react to governments’ social welfare rhetoric, and reviews the conflicting arguments about how government support responds to social welfare spending. It then reports time-series, cross-sectional analyses of data on government support, governments’ social welfare rhetoric and social welfare spending from Britain, Spain and the United States, that support the prediction that government rhetoric has no effects. The article estimates, however, that increased social welfare spending sharply depresses support for both left- and right-wing governments. These findings highlight a strategic dilemma for left-wing governments, which lose public support when they act on their social welfare rhetoric by increasing welfare spending.


Author(s):  
Kenneth E. Carpenter

This paper examines the history of statistical publishing by governments, looks at other kinds of government publishing, and provides brief case studies of the collecting of government documents by libraries in Europe and the United States. These are revealing of attitudes toward government documents and in some cases show a relationship between government-document collecting and the goals of the library. The author argues that collecting and disseminating statistical information was a conscious decision made by governments on the grounds that information would lead to public support. It is arguable that the budget increases for national libraries in Britain and France, which occurred as well in the 1830s, derived from the value those governments placed on disseminating information. A connection in one era between library support and what is considered to be knowledge and the value placed on it suggests a way of looking at libraries in other periods. Indeed, for all libraries, policies and practices in collecting government documents may be indicative of a library's goals.


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