Limits to degrowth? Exploring patterns of support for and resistance against degrowth policies

Degrowth policies seek to ensure that well-being and human needs are met while simultaneously reducing resource use and environmental impacts to bring them within planetary boundaries. While much scholarly interest has focused on developing political paths towards degrowth and their associated policies, we know less about public support for such policies. Given that the suggested policies are usually quite radical or transformative, public reactions are important to determine whether the policies are politically viable. This study extends the literature by examining both support for and resistance against nine degrowth policies: reduced working hours, banning advertisements for harmful consumption, a jobs guarantee, minimum and maximum incomes, higher taxes on capital gains, alternative forms of housing, public transportation and reduced livestock production. The analysis is based on a 2024 survey performed in Denmark. While support is relatively evenly distributed among policies, resistance is concentrated on radically redistributive policies (minimum income, maximum income and capital gains) and reducing animal production. Results show that support and resistance are shaped by well-known predictors of attitudes to eco-social and environmental policies, including climate attitudes, environmental values, ideology, income and age, but these predictors also vary across policies.