Can Public Participation Reduce Climate Policy Backlash? The Role of Initial Policy Support and Populist Voting in Referendum Reactions

Reichelt, Anna Georgina (2025) Can Public Participation Reduce Climate Policy Backlash? The Role of Initial Policy Support and Populist Voting in Referendum Reactions. Master thesis, Psychology.

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Abstract

Climate mitigation policies are essential for addressing global warming, but they often face public resistance, particularly from right-wing populist parties. Research suggests that opposition is not only driven by dissatisfaction with the policy content, but also with the decision-making procedure. I hypothesized that referendums can increase policy acceptability, but mostly among voters who hold moderate opinions on the policy or who initially support it. Moreover, I assumed that both right- and left-wing populist voters would react particularly strongly to referendums. Drawing on data from a vignette experiment (N = 1328) conducted in Slovenia and the Netherlands within the EU CAPABLE project, I tested whether the acceptability of two policies (a doubling of beef prices and a fossil fuel profit tax for companies) was higher when adopted via referendum versus a government decision without citizen input. Before the treatment, the beef policy faced slight opposition, and the profit tax received slight support. The referendum did not increase overall policy acceptability for either of the policies. However, in the Netherlands, the referendum unexpectedly increased acceptability slightly among initially opposed participants. I did not observe consistent differences between populist and non-populist voters in either their initial policy support or their reactions to the referendum. The results imply that climate policy acceptability is largely determined by support for the policy itself, and in the Netherlands, referendums may partly reduce policy opposition. To formulate recommendations on the use of referendums to reduce climate policy backlash, further research in real-world settings is needed.

Item Type:	Thesis (Master)
Supervisor name:	Bouman, T.
Degree programme:	Psychology
Differentiation route:	Environmental Psychology (EP) [Master Psychology]
Date Deposited:	29 Jul 2025 09:03
Last Modified:	29 Jul 2025 09:03
URI:	http://gmwpublic.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/5762

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