The Politicization of Policies to Address Climate Change

• In Event: The Dynamics of Climate Policy Support in the US

Abstract

Theories of public opinion formation posit that partisan elites rapidly politicize issues as they come onto the agenda, often undermining consensus about effective policy solutions. Our hypothesis is that policies grounded in science and technology might be more resistant to politicization, even when related beliefs are already polarized. An important case is climate change, on which Americans’ beliefs are sharply polarized by party. Climate scientists now largely agree that simply reducing the amount of CO2 humans put into the atmosphere will not reverse global warming. To do that, we must extract atmospheric CO2. Since these Carbon Dioxide Reduction (CDR) technologies are so young, our first goal is to measure public awareness about them. Second, we explore whether support for CDR policies is already as politicized as opinions about climate change emissions reduction. In a nationally representative survey of Americans that includes an online experiment, we find the answer to be no.

Authors

• Erin Cikanek, University of Michigan

• Nicholas A. Valentino, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor