Journal: Policy and Society

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Oxford University Press

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ISSN

1449-4035
1839-3373

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20232
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Publications 1 - 2 of 2
  • Policy sequencing can increase public support for ambitious climate policy
    Item type: Journal Article
    Montfort, Simon; Fesenfeld, Lukas Paul; Stadelmann-Steffen, Isabelle; et al. (2023)
    Policy and Society
    Public support for ambitious climate policies and carbon prices that have direct costs for voters may depend on policy sequencing. Policy sequencing theory suggests that the strategic ordering of policies into sequences that initially create benefits can subsequently increase support for higher carbon prices. However, systematic quantitative evidence about the effects of sequencing on public support is lacking. We provide novel theoretical and empirical insights on the mechanisms through which strategic policy sequencing affects public support for climate policies. We generated these insights using geospatial data and a representative conjoint experiment with Swiss voters conducted just before the popular vote on an amendment to the Federal Act on the Reduction of Greenhouse Gas Emissions in June 2021. Our evidence shows that the perceived effectiveness of prior policy-induced benefits is related to more public support for higher carbon prices across sectors. Moreover, we find that more opportunity structures for low-emission alternatives-like higher EV charging station density-are associated with increased public support for carbon prices in the sector where the former material benefits occur. Our results also imply that positive policy perceptions of prior climate policies are related to increased support, particularly among conservative voters and those who do not regard climate change as a salient issue. Thus, strategic policy sequencing could be an effective strategy for broadening public support for ambitious climate policies.
  • The role of policy design in policy continuation and ratcheting-up of policy ambition
    Item type: Journal Article
    Sewerin, Sebastian; Fesenfeld, Lukas P.; Schmidt, Tobias (2023)
    Policy and Society
    Effectively addressing grand societal challenges like climate change and environmental degradation requires policy intervention that is not only continuous but also increasing in ambition over time. However, negative feedback could lead to policies being weakened or even discontinued after a while. An important but unresolved policy question, therefore, is whether policies can be deliberately designed to survive (i.e., to '' stick '') and, ideally, be replaced with more ambitious ones over time (i.e., to '' ratchet up ''). We bridge policy feedback and policy design scholarship to derive hypotheses on the effects of two policy design features-'' intensity '' (i.e., a measure of policies ' overall design) and '' specificity '' (i.e., a measure of policies ' targeted focus)-on policy (dis-)continuation and ratcheting-up (-down) of ambition. Focusing on policy design, we contribute to the theorization and empirical understanding of endogenous factors behind policy change. We test our hypotheses with an event history dataset of 627 low-carbon energy policies in eight developed countries. Conducting a multilevel survival analysis, we find statistically significant evidence of more intense policies being replaced with less intense ones, i.e., more intense policies lead to ratcheting-down of ambition. We also find that more specific policies are more likely to be replaced with more intense policies, i.e., more specific policies lead to ratcheting-up of ambition. Based on these novel insights, we discuss how policy design can navigate these complex dynamics. In this sense, our approach also contributes to the discussion about the '' forward-looking '' potential of the policy sciences.
Publications 1 - 2 of 2