Record Details

Collective action problems: Disentangling possible feedback loops between government policies and the public’s value-change

European Journal of Government and Economics

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Field Value
 
Title Collective action problems: Disentangling possible feedback loops between government policies and the public’s value-change
 
Creator Hoff-Elimari, Eivind
Bardi, Anat
Matti, Simon
Östman, Kristina
 
Subject Values; policy feedback; democracy
Z18
 
Description Solving collective action problems, such as poverty reduction or climate change, depends on interactions between governments' and voters' preferences regarding pro-social actions. This paper examines whether the overall direction of change in pro-social public policy precedes public value-change, rather than the other way around. We examine change in the public’s pro-social values in six European countries, as measured by the European Social Survey (ESS) during 2002-2012. In these countries, we conducted an expert survey to rate governmental policy that expresses these values over the same period, thereby examining value-change in governmental policy. The chronological comparison of value-change of the public with that of respective governments suggests that changes in pro-social government policies may drive public value-change rather than vice versa. This complements previous studies focused on the opinion-policy connection. Possible political implications are discussed. The promising findings of this initial study point to the importance of conducting larger-scale future studies.
 
Publisher Europa Grande
 
Contributor Tom Crompton, WWF-UK
 
Date 2014-06-27
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
Peer-reviewed Article
 
Format application/pdf
 
Identifier http://www.ejge.org/index.php/ejge/article/view/51
 
Source European Journal of Government and Economics; Vol 3, No 1 (2014); 24-46
2254-7088
 
Language eng
 
Relation http://www.ejge.org/index.php/ejge/article/view/51/42
 
Rights Copyright (c) 2014 Eivind Hoff-Elimari, Anat Bardi, Simon Matti, Kristina Östman
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0