Nationalist ideology, rightwing populism, and public views about climate change in Europe

Joakim Kulin,Ingemar Johansson Sevä,Riley E Dunlap

doi:10.1080/09644016.2021.1898879

Joakim Kulin, Ingemar Johansson Sevä + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1080/09644016.2021.1898879

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Journal: Environmental Politics	Publication Date: Mar 23, 2021
Citations: 56	License type: open-access

Affiliation: Oklahoma State University, Umeå University

Abstract

ABSTRACT Rising rightwing populism (RWP) potentially constitutes an obstacle to climate change mitigation, as European RWP parties and politicians often espouse climate change skepticism and oppose climate policies. Meanwhile, their party positions and issue stances have also become increasingly characterized by nationalism. Using European Social Survey data from 2016, we show that public attitudes consistent with nationalist ideology are clearly linked to voting for RWP parties and that people who hold these attitudes are more likely to be skeptical about climate change and to oppose policies that increase taxes on fossil fuels. With regard to policy attitudes, we find that nationalist ideology is more influential than traditional left-right political ideology, environmental values and political trust. The results also reveal substantial cross-national differences, as nationalist ideology is linked more closely to public views about climate change in Western European countries, where RWP parties with a nationalist rhetoric have had recent electoral successes.

Highlights

Parallel to the increasing threat of climate change to human societies, many Western democracies have recently experienced a rise of rightwing populism (RWP) and increasing support for RWP parties (Inglehart and Norris 2016)
The results show that people who vote for RWP parties in Western Europe are considerably more likely to hold attitudes consistent with nationalist ideology (Figure 2 (a))
Our study contributes to the literature on the influence of political ideologies on public opinion about climate change, as we identify nationalist ideology as an important predictor of two key public responses in this regard – climate change skepticism and opposition to increasing fossil fuel taxes

Summary

Introduction

Parallel to the increasing threat of climate change to human societies, many Western democracies have recently experienced a rise of rightwing populism (RWP) and increasing support for RWP parties (Inglehart and Norris 2016). In addition to the effects of nationalist ideology, support (via voting) for RWP parties is likely to be related to climate change skepticism and opposition to mitigation policies.

Results

Conclusion