{"title":"How is political trust associated with economic and environmental policy prioritization? A longitudinal analysis between 2017 and 2022.","authors":"Sami Ahonen, Aki Koivula, Jukka Sivonen","doi":"10.1007/s13280-024-02054-z","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>In this article, we examine the longitudinal development of economy-over-environment policy priorities in Finland during a period marked by several significant adverse societal events. In addition, we explore the influence of political trust on these priorities over time. We utilize a five-round panel dataset comprising 2155 observations (N = 431) to examine both within-individual and between-individual variations from late 2017 to early 2023. Our findings reveal a significant increase in the prioritization of the economy in each observation period following the COVID-19 outbreak. However, this trend is not observed among individuals with high levels of political trust. The within-individual analysis indicates that high political trust moderates, rather than causes, higher economy-over-environment prioritization. Our study highlights the significance of political trust as a preventing factor against the deprioritization of environmental policies, particularly when societies confront significant and intersecting adverse events.</p>","PeriodicalId":461,"journal":{"name":"Ambio","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.8000,"publicationDate":"2024-08-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Ambio","FirstCategoryId":"93","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-024-02054-z","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"ENGINEERING, ENVIRONMENTAL","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
In this article, we examine the longitudinal development of economy-over-environment policy priorities in Finland during a period marked by several significant adverse societal events. In addition, we explore the influence of political trust on these priorities over time. We utilize a five-round panel dataset comprising 2155 observations (N = 431) to examine both within-individual and between-individual variations from late 2017 to early 2023. Our findings reveal a significant increase in the prioritization of the economy in each observation period following the COVID-19 outbreak. However, this trend is not observed among individuals with high levels of political trust. The within-individual analysis indicates that high political trust moderates, rather than causes, higher economy-over-environment prioritization. Our study highlights the significance of political trust as a preventing factor against the deprioritization of environmental policies, particularly when societies confront significant and intersecting adverse events.
期刊介绍:
Explores the link between anthropogenic activities and the environment, Ambio encourages multi- or interdisciplinary submissions with explicit management or policy recommendations.
Ambio addresses the scientific, social, economic, and cultural factors that influence the condition of the human environment. Ambio particularly encourages multi- or inter-disciplinary submissions with explicit management or policy recommendations.
For more than 45 years Ambio has brought international perspective to important developments in environmental research, policy and related activities for an international readership of specialists, generalists, students, decision-makers and interested laymen.