IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/eeupol/v15y2014i1p132-151.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

European unilateralism and involuntary burden-sharing in global climate politics: A public opinion perspective from the other side

Author

Listed:
  • Thomas Bernauer
  • Robert Gampfer
  • Aya Kachi

Abstract

Powerful political actors in the international system quite frequently adopt unilateral policies whose implications extend beyond their respective borders. Examples include financial market regulation as well as taxation, trade and environmental policies. They do so to avoid lowest common-denominator outcomes in areas where they desire more ambitious international policies, and to motivate or coerce other countries to shoulder a part of the burden associated with problem solving. This article explores whether and how such unilateralism affects public opinion in other countries, arguing that such analysis can point to external constraints on unilateralism and is worthwhile also for normative reasons. Empirically, we examine the effect of a major unilateral European Union (EU) climate policy initiative, which regulates emissions from aircraft, on public opinion in India and the United States, the two largest democracies outside the EU. Based on survey experiments, we study the effects of cost and sovereignty considerations on people’s evaluation of the EU’s new policy. The results show that both types of concern play a significant role and may act as a constraint on unilateral European climate policy.

Suggested Citation

  • Thomas Bernauer & Robert Gampfer & Aya Kachi, 2014. "European unilateralism and involuntary burden-sharing in global climate politics: A public opinion perspective from the other side," European Union Politics, , vol. 15(1), pages 132-151, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:eeupol:v:15:y:2014:i:1:p:132-151
    DOI: 10.1177/1465116513496878
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1465116513496878
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/1465116513496878?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Tjernström, E. & Tietenberg, T., 2008. "Do differences in attitudes explain differences in national climate change policies?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(2), pages 315-324, April.
    2. Victor,David G., 2011. "Global Warming Gridlock," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521865012.
    3. Sandler,Todd, 2004. "Global Collective Action," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521834773.
    4. Johannes Urpelainen, 2009. "Explaining the Schwarzenegger Phenomenon: Local Frontrunners in Climate Policy," Global Environmental Politics, MIT Press, vol. 9(3), pages 82-105, August.
    5. Sandler,Todd, 2004. "Global Collective Action," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521542548.
    6. Florian Landis & Thomas Bernauer, 2012. "Transfer payments in global climate policy," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 2(8), pages 628-633, August.
    7. Miranda A. Schreurs & Yves Tiberghien, 2007. "Multi-Level Reinforcement: Explaining European Union Leadership in Climate Change Mitigation," Global Environmental Politics, MIT Press, vol. 7(4), pages 19-46, November.
    8. Anthony Downs, 1957. "An Economic Theory of Political Action in a Democracy," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 65, pages 135-135.
    9. Bernauer, Thomas & Caduff, Ladina, 2004. "In Whose Interest? Pressure Group Politics, Economic Competition and Environmental Regulation," Journal of Public Policy, Cambridge University Press, vol. 24(1), pages 99-126, May.
    10. Fabrizio Gilardi, 2010. "Who Learns from What in Policy Diffusion Processes?," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 54(3), pages 650-666, July.
    11. Berinsky, Adam J. & Huber, Gregory A. & Lenz, Gabriel S., 2012. "Evaluating Online Labor Markets for Experimental Research: Amazon.com's Mechanical Turk," Political Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 20(3), pages 351-368, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Kathleen E. Powers & Joshua D. Kertzer & Deborah J. Brooks & Stephen G. Brooks, 2022. "What’s Fair in International Politics? Equity, Equality, and Foreign Policy Attitudes," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 66(2), pages 217-245, February.
    2. Robert Gampfer, 2016. "Minilateralism or the UNFCCC? The Political Feasibility of Climate Clubs," Global Environmental Politics, MIT Press, vol. 16(3), pages 62-88, August.
    3. Kachi, Aya & Bernauer, Thomas & Gampfer, Robert, 2015. "Climate policy in hard times: Are the pessimists right?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 227-241.
    4. Brilé Anderson & Thomas Bernauer & Stefano Balietti, 2017. "Effects of fairness principles on willingness to pay for climate change mitigation," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 142(3), pages 447-461, June.
    5. Stine Aakre, 2016. "The political feasibility of potent enforcement in a post-Kyoto climate agreement," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 16(1), pages 145-159, February.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Thomas Hale, 2020. "Catalytic Cooperation," Global Environmental Politics, MIT Press, vol. 20(4), pages 73-98, Autumn.
    2. Joshua W. Busby & Johannes Urpelainen, 2020. "Following the Leaders? How to Restore Progress in Global Climate Governance," Global Environmental Politics, MIT Press, vol. 20(4), pages 99-121, Autumn.
    3. Johannes Urpelainen, 2013. "A model of dynamic climate governance: dream big, win small," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 13(2), pages 107-125, May.
    4. Michaël Aklin & Matto Mildenberger, 2020. "Prisoners of the Wrong Dilemma: Why Distributive Conflict, Not Collective Action, Characterizes the Politics of Climate Change," Global Environmental Politics, MIT Press, vol. 20(4), pages 4-27, Autumn.
    5. Birchenhall Chris & Windrum Paul, 2014. "Global Warming: Technology, Preferences and Policy," Journal of Economics and Statistics (Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik), De Gruyter, vol. 234(2-3), pages 366-387, April.
    6. Robbett, Andrea & Matthews, Peter Hans, 2018. "Partisan bias and expressive voting," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 157(C), pages 107-120.
    7. Wolfgang Buchholz & Wolfgang Peters, 2007. "Justifying the Lindahl solution as an outcome of fair cooperation," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 133(1), pages 157-169, October.
    8. Alejandro Caparrós & Michael Finus, 2020. "Public good agreements under the weakest‐link technology," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 22(3), pages 555-582, June.
    9. Alessandra Cepparulo & Luisa Giuriato, 2012. "Global Challenges and Country-Specific Responses through Aid Financing of Global Public Goods," Working Papers in Public Economics 156, University of Rome La Sapienza, Department of Economics and Law.
    10. Mattozzi, Andrea & Snowberg, Erik, 2018. "The right type of legislator: A theory of taxation and representation," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 159(C), pages 54-65.
    11. Raj Verma, 2022. "Instability in Afghanistan and Non‐traditional Security Threats: A Public Good Problem?," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 13(1), pages 152-159, February.
    12. Anne van Aaken & Janis Antonovics & Scott Barrett, 2016. "Collective Action to Avoid Catastrophe: When Countries Succeed, When They Fail, and Why," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 7, pages 45-55, May.
    13. Todd Sandler, 2018. "Collective action and geoengineering," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 13(1), pages 105-125, March.
    14. Todd Sandler, 2009. "Intergenerational Public Goods: Transnational Considerations," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 56(3), pages 353-370, July.
    15. Wolfgang Buchholz & Wolfgang Peters, 2008. "Equal sacrifice and fair burden-sharing in a public goods economy," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 15(4), pages 415-429, August.
    16. Morath, Florian, 2010. "Strategic information acquisition and the mitigation of global warming," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 59(2), pages 206-217, March.
    17. Liesbet Hooghe & Gary Marks, 2015. "Delegation and pooling in international organizations," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 10(3), pages 305-328, September.
    18. Gregor Schwerhoff, 2013. "Leadership and International Climate Cooperation," Working Papers 2013.97, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei.
    19. Wockenfuß, Christof, 2009. "Demokratie durch Entwicklungskonkurrenz," Discussion Papers 2009-17, Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg, Chair of Economic Ethics.
    20. Alejandro Caparrós & Jean-Christophe Péreau, 2017. "Multilateral versus sequential negotiations over climate change," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 69(2), pages 365-387.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:eeupol:v:15:y:2014:i:1:p:132-151. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.