Governing for Future Generations: How Political Trust Shapes Attitudes Towards Climate and Debt Policies
Policy decisions, and public preferences about them, often entail judgements about costs people should be willing to pay for the benefit of future generations. Economic analyses discount policies’ future benefits based on expectations about increasing standards of living, while empirical studies in...
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doaj-976b0a7e624445a5a22dd21294ac2bcc2021-05-11T04:33:52ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Political Science2673-31452021-05-01310.3389/fpos.2021.656053656053Governing for Future Generations: How Political Trust Shapes Attitudes Towards Climate and Debt PoliciesMalcolm Fairbrother0Malcolm Fairbrother1Malcolm Fairbrother2Gustaf Arrhenius3Gustaf Arrhenius4Krister Bykvist5Krister Bykvist6Tim Campbell7Institute for Futures Studies, Stockholm, SwedenDepartment of Sociology, Umeå University, Umeå, SwedenDepartment of Sociology, University of Graz, Graz, AustriaInstitute for Futures Studies, Stockholm, SwedenDepartment of Philosophy, Stockholm University, Stockholm, SwedenInstitute for Futures Studies, Stockholm, SwedenDepartment of Philosophy, Stockholm University, Stockholm, SwedenInstitute for Futures Studies, Stockholm, SwedenPolicy decisions, and public preferences about them, often entail judgements about costs people should be willing to pay for the benefit of future generations. Economic analyses discount policies’ future benefits based on expectations about increasing standards of living, while empirical studies in psychology have found future-oriented people are more motivated to protect the environment. In this article, using original surveys and survey experiments in four countries—Sweden, Spain, South Korea, and China—we show that support for future-oriented policies also strongly reflects people’s political trust. Focusing on policies for reducing either global warming or public debt, we find political trust operates on attitudes by shaping people’s (a) confidence in policies’ effectiveness and (b) willingness to sacrifice for others. The influence of political trust outweighs that of subjective concern, while discounting has so little impact that people who expect future generations to be richer are more, not less, willing to sacrifice.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpos.2021.656053/fullpolitical trustfuture generationsclimate changenational debtpublic opinionintergenerational justice |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Malcolm Fairbrother Malcolm Fairbrother Malcolm Fairbrother Gustaf Arrhenius Gustaf Arrhenius Krister Bykvist Krister Bykvist Tim Campbell |
spellingShingle |
Malcolm Fairbrother Malcolm Fairbrother Malcolm Fairbrother Gustaf Arrhenius Gustaf Arrhenius Krister Bykvist Krister Bykvist Tim Campbell Governing for Future Generations: How Political Trust Shapes Attitudes Towards Climate and Debt Policies Frontiers in Political Science political trust future generations climate change national debt public opinion intergenerational justice |
author_facet |
Malcolm Fairbrother Malcolm Fairbrother Malcolm Fairbrother Gustaf Arrhenius Gustaf Arrhenius Krister Bykvist Krister Bykvist Tim Campbell |
author_sort |
Malcolm Fairbrother |
title |
Governing for Future Generations: How Political Trust Shapes Attitudes Towards Climate and Debt Policies |
title_short |
Governing for Future Generations: How Political Trust Shapes Attitudes Towards Climate and Debt Policies |
title_full |
Governing for Future Generations: How Political Trust Shapes Attitudes Towards Climate and Debt Policies |
title_fullStr |
Governing for Future Generations: How Political Trust Shapes Attitudes Towards Climate and Debt Policies |
title_full_unstemmed |
Governing for Future Generations: How Political Trust Shapes Attitudes Towards Climate and Debt Policies |
title_sort |
governing for future generations: how political trust shapes attitudes towards climate and debt policies |
publisher |
Frontiers Media S.A. |
series |
Frontiers in Political Science |
issn |
2673-3145 |
publishDate |
2021-05-01 |
description |
Policy decisions, and public preferences about them, often entail judgements about costs people should be willing to pay for the benefit of future generations. Economic analyses discount policies’ future benefits based on expectations about increasing standards of living, while empirical studies in psychology have found future-oriented people are more motivated to protect the environment. In this article, using original surveys and survey experiments in four countries—Sweden, Spain, South Korea, and China—we show that support for future-oriented policies also strongly reflects people’s political trust. Focusing on policies for reducing either global warming or public debt, we find political trust operates on attitudes by shaping people’s (a) confidence in policies’ effectiveness and (b) willingness to sacrifice for others. The influence of political trust outweighs that of subjective concern, while discounting has so little impact that people who expect future generations to be richer are more, not less, willing to sacrifice. |
topic |
political trust future generations climate change national debt public opinion intergenerational justice |
url |
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpos.2021.656053/full |
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