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Dividing the pie in the eco-social state: Exploring the relationship between public support for environmental and welfare policies

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  • Niklas Jakobsson
  • Raya Muttarak
  • Mi Ah Schoyen

Abstract

Recent theoretical literature in social policy argued that climate change posed a new risk to the states and called for transformation from a traditional welfare state to an ‘eco’ state. From a theoretical point of view, different welfare regimes may manage environmental/climate change risks in a similar way to social risks. However, not much has been done to explore the issue empirically. To this end, this paper aims to investigate public attitudes towards environmental and traditional welfare policies given that environmental change is a new social risk the welfare states have to address. Do individuals that care for one area also care for the other? That is, do the preferences in these two policy spheres complement or substitute one another? We test these hypotheses both at the individual- and country-level, using data from 14 countries included in all three waves (1993, 2000, and 2010) of the environmental module in the International Social Survey Programme. Specifically, we investigate the relationship between attitudes towards income redistribution (indicator of support for welfare policy) and willingness to pay for environmental protection (indicator of support for environmental policy). Our findings suggest that attitudes in the two areas are substitutes in the total sample, but that the relationship is very small and only statistically significant in some specifications. When we explore country differentials, we observe clear heterogeneity in the relationship, which can be explained by differences in political and historical contexts across countries.

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  • Niklas Jakobsson & Raya Muttarak & Mi Ah Schoyen, 2018. "Dividing the pie in the eco-social state: Exploring the relationship between public support for environmental and welfare policies," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 36(2), pages 313-339, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:envirc:v:36:y:2018:i:2:p:313-339
    DOI: 10.1177/2399654417711448
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    2. Temirlan T. Moldogaziev & Rachel M. Krause & Gwen Arnold & Le Ahn Nguyen Long & Tatyana Ruseva & Chris Silvia & Christopher Witko, 2023. "Support for the environment post‐transition? Material concerns and policy tradeoffs," Review of Policy Research, Policy Studies Organization, vol. 40(2), pages 186-206, March.
    3. Maria Petmesidou & Ana M. Guillén, 2022. "Europe’s green, digital and demographic transition: a social policy research perspective," Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, , vol. 28(3), pages 317-332, August.
    4. Tancrède Voituriez, 2020. "The quest for green welfare state in developing countries," Working Papers hal-02567919, HAL.
    5. Katharina Bohnenberger, 2020. "Money, Vouchers, Public Infrastructures? A Framework for Sustainable Welfare Benefits," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-30, January.
    6. Béla Galgóczi & Philippe Pochet, 2022. "Introduction. Welfare states confronted by the challenges of climate change: a short review of the issues and possible impacts," Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, , vol. 28(3), pages 307-316, August.
    7. Cahen-Fourot, Louison, 2020. "Contemporary capitalisms and their social relation to the environment," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 172(C).
    8. Scott Y. Lin, 2021. "Bringing resource management back into the environmental governance agenda: eco-state restructuring in China," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 23(8), pages 12272-12301, August.
    9. García-García, Pablo & Buendía, Luis & Carpintero, Óscar, 2022. "Welfare regimes as enablers of just energy transitions: Revisiting and testing the hypothesis of synergy for Europe," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 197(C).
    10. Tancrède Voituriez, 2020. "The quest for green welfare state in developing countries," Working Papers hal-02876972, HAL.
    11. Adeline Otto & Dimitri Gugushvili, 2020. "Eco-Social Divides in Europe: Public Attitudes towards Welfare and Climate Change Policies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-18, January.

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