| 1. |
- Ahlbom Persson, Tove, et al.
(författare)
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“Gimme Shelter”: The Role of Democracy and Institutional Quality in Disaster Preparedness
- 2017
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Ingår i: Political research quarterly. - : SAGE Publications. - 1065-9129 .- 1938-274X. ; 70:4, s. 833-847
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Natural disasters cause suffering for millions of people around the globe every year, and as climate change unfolds, the likelihood of natural catastrophes is increasing. While weather shocks such as earthquakes, tornadoes, and floods are beyond our control, the governments’ capacity to protect populations largely determines the degree of human suffering in disasters. Democracies, with freedom of speech, broad public participation, and representation, are believed to protect their populations better than nondemocratic regimes. However, democratic institutions are insufficient for securing protection from disasters in contexts of corruption, poor planning, and public administration incompetence. We argue that the effect of democracy on the extent of human suffering in disasters is contingent on the ability of governments to implement their tasks or the quality of implementing institutions. We test this interaction hypothesis using time-series cross-sectional data from the Varieties of Democracy project, the Quality of Government dataset, and the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters. The results show that more democracy is associated with fewer people being affected by natural disasters only in settings where institutional quality is high. When institutional quality is low, more people seem to suffer in democracies than in authoritarian states.
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| 2. |
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| 3. |
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| 4. |
- Boräng, Frida, 1977, et al.
(författare)
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In Light of Democracy and Corruption: Institutional Determinants of Electricity Provision
- 2021
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Ingår i: The Energy Journal. - : International Association for Energy Economics (IAEE). - 0195-6574 .- 1944-9089. ; 42:2
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Long-lasting democratic institutions have been found to matter for the universal provision of reliable electricity. In this article we revisit this finding, suggesting that the effect of democracy on electricity provision is moderated by the quality of institutions shaping the implementation of public policies. We test the hypothesis positing the interaction effect between democracy and corruption using cross-national data on the share of population living in unlit areas. The results show that democracy is associated with a higher electrification rate only in low-corrupt contexts. When corruption is widespread, democratic experience is not correlated with higher rates of electrification. These findings suggest that the effect of democratic institutions is conditional on the quality of the institutions that shape policy implementation.
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| 5. |
- Boräng, Frida, 1977, et al.
(författare)
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Political determinants of electricity provision in small island developing states
- 2016
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Ingår i: Energy Policy. - : Elsevier BV. - 0301-4215 .- 1873-6777. ; 98, s. 725-734
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper approaches provision of affordable and reliable electricity in Small Island Developing States (SIDS) as a case of public good provision. It aims to contribute to our understanding of how regime type and the quality of implementing institutions within political systems affect the prerequisites for successful electrification in SIDS. More specifically, we analyse the independent and interdependent effects of level of democracy and control of corruption on per capita household electricity consumption in SIDS, using data from 34 SIDS over the period 1996-2009. The results show that although the independent effects of level of democracy and control of corruption are sensitive to model specification, these two factors do have an interdependent impact on per capita household electricity consumption: democratization has positive effects on provision of electricity to the general population only when there is a certain level of corruption control in place. The results imply a) that it is important for policy actors to acknowledge the interaction between regime type and the quality of implementing institutions, and b) when planning electrification projects in SIDS, it is necessary to have information about the social and political context in order to design the most effective projects. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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| 6. |
- Carlitz, Ruth D, et al.
(författare)
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Local interest group activity and environmental degradation in authoritarian regimes
- 2021
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Ingår i: World Development. - : Elsevier BV. - 0305-750X .- 1873-5991. ; 142
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- An extensive literature shows that democracies tend to do a better job of protecting the environment than autocracies. Much less work has been done to explain the considerable variation in environmental quality within many authoritarian settings. We help fill this gap with an empirical study of Vietnam – one of the world’s most stable authoritarian regimes as well as one of the most environmentally vulnerable. We focus on the relationship between interest group activity and environmental outcomes (air and water quality) at the district level. While the participation of more actors in civic and political life has the potential to improve outcomes by enhancing scrutiny of government, interest groups may also promote economic interests to the detriment of environmental protection. Our analysis shows that districts characterized by higher levels of local interest group activity tend to have lower air and water quality. This result is consistent across a range of model specifications and estimation strategies. These findings imply that organization of local interests may be detrimental to environmental quality in authoritarian settings and that effective mobilization of actors who would benefit from high environmental quality (i.e., citizens) may be overshadowed by those of pro-business interests. As such, our findings highlight the limits of popular participation related to environmental protection in authoritarian regimes – particularly those that base their legitimacy on economic development.
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| 7. |
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| 8. |
- Jagers, Sverker C., 1967, et al.
(författare)
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Paradise Islands? Island States and the provision of environmental goods
- 2016
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Ingår i: Sustainability. - : MDPI AG. - 2071-1050. ; 8:3
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Island states have been shown to outperform continental states on a number of large-scale coordination-related outcomes, such as levels of democracy and institutional quality. The argument developed and tested in this article contends that the same kind of logic may apply to islands’ environmental performance, too. However, the empirical analysis shows mixed results. Among the 105 environmental outcomes that we analyzed, being an island only has a positive impact on 20 of them. For example, island states tend to outcompete continental states with respect to several indicators related to water quality but not in aspects related to biodiversity, protected areas, or environmental regulations. In addition, the causal factors previously suggested to make islands outperform continental states in terms of coordination have weak explanatory power in predicting islands’ environmental performance. We conclude the paper by discussing how these interesting findings can be further explored.
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| 9. |
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| 10. |
- Laegreid, Ole Martin, et al.
(författare)
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Are Carbon Dioxide Emissions Decoupled from GDP Growth in Well-functioning Democracies?
- 2017
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Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Empirical studies of the relationship between GDP per capita and country-level CO2 emissions tend to focus on the direct effect of per capita GDP growth, rarely taking political institutions into consideration. This paper introduces theoretical insights from environmental political science research, which suggests that CO2 emissions models would gain explanatory leverage if moderators gauging political institutions were considered. We test these theories by estimating the potentially moderating effects of democracy, corruption, veto points and players, and civil society activity. Our results suggest a positive and linear per capita GDP-CO2 relationship, which is barely affected by any variations in political and institutional factors. The only significant moderator in our analysis is bicameralism in democratic, low corrupt countries, which generates a stronger effect of per capita GDP growth at low levels of GDP per capita. Our analysis thus lends rigor to studies in environmental economics that find a positive and linear per capita GDP-CO2 relationship, and does not provide support for theories common in environmental political science research.
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| 11. |
- Laegreid, Ole Martin, et al.
(författare)
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Do Political Institutions Moderate the GDP-CO2 Relationship?
- 2018
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Ingår i: Ecological Economics. - 0921-8009. ; 145:March, s. 441-450
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Empirical studies of the relationship between GDP per capita and country-level CO2 emissions tend to focus on the direct effect of per capita GDP growth, rarely taking political institutions into consideration. This paper introduces theoretical insights from environmental political science research, which suggests that CO2 emission models would gain explanatory leverage if moderators gauging political institutions were considered. We test these theories by estimating the potentially moderating effects of democracy, corruption, number of veto points and players, and civil society activity. We find that the per capita CO2 elasticity of GDP becomes non-monotonic and diminishing as GDP per capita increases in countries with democratic non-corrupt governments and high civil society participation. The moderating impact of this political-institutional configuration is relatively small, suggesting only limited support for theories in environmental political science. However, the results are robust and add an important specification to the studies in environmental economics that find positive and monotonic GDP-CO2 relationship: the adverse effect of GDP per capita on CO2 emissions is not profound in rich well-governed countries with active civil societies.
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| 12. |
- Martinangeli, A. F. M., et al.
(författare)
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Institutional Quality Causes Generalized Trust: Experimental Evidence on Trusting under the Shadow of Doubt
- 2023
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Ingår i: American Journal of Political Science. - 0092-5853.
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Generalized trust is essential for collective action, which is at the heart of many societal problems. Institutional quality has been proposed as a driver of generalized trust, but while the correlation between the two is strong and robust, the evidence on the causal link is scant. We show that this relationship is causal. We first experimentally expose individuals to institutions of different quality, operationalized as their ability to prevent corrupt behavior. We then measure generalized trust using a trust game. The results show that institutional quality drives generalized trust and that this effect is generated by the mere doubt that corrupt behaviors might succeed, even without knowledge of occurrence or success of such behaviors. Cross-country comparisons with novel data support our results. Our contributions are the first causal experimental evidence on the link between institutional quality and trust and a novel experimental design for modeling institutional quality in laboratory settings.
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| 13. |
- Martinangeli, Andrea, 1985, et al.
(författare)
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Institutional Quality Causes Social Trust: Evidence from Survey and Experimental Data on Trusting Under the Shadow of Doubt
- 2020
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Ingår i: SSRN Electronic Journal. - : Elsevier BV. - 1556-5068.
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Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Social trust is a crucial ingredient for successful collective action. What causes social trust to develop, however, remains poorly understood. The quality of political institutions has been proposed as a candidate driver and has been shown to correlate with social trust. We show that this relationship is causal. We begin by documenting a positive correlation between quality of institutions, measured by embezzlement, and social trust using survey data. We then take the investigation to the laboratory: We first exogenously expose subjects to different levels of institutional quality in an environment mimicking public administration embezzlement. We then measure social trust among the participants using a trust game. Coherent with our survey evidence, individuals exposed to low institutional quality trust significantly less.
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| 14. |
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| 15. |
- Povitkina, Marina, et al.
(författare)
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Democracy, development and the marine environment - A global time-series investigation
- 2015
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Ingår i: Ocean & Coastal Management. - : Elsevier BV. - 0964-5691 .- 1873-524X. ; 105, s. 25-34
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Is democracy favorable or adverse for the management of marine resources? While some studies find democracy to increase the likelihood of achieving sustainable development, others propose that democracy rather has negative effects on the environment. This paper contributes explicitly to this debate, but also adds insights from research arguing that the effects of democracy are conditioned by surrounding institutions. Building on this literature, we argue that the way democracy works - whether it is an instrument for collective action beneficial to the environment or an instrument for patronage and clientelism - depends on levels of economic development. The overall objective of the article is to test this proposition empirically. Employing time-series cross-section analysis and using Marine Trophic Index as a proxy for the health of marine ecosystems, we investigate the impact of democracy on the marine environment in a global sample from 1972 to 2006. The analysis provides interesting insights regarding the conditional role of economic development. We report negative effects of democracy in low income settings, but find that this pattern is reversed when economic development has reached a certain threshold. Finally, we discuss how democracy affects the prospects for sustainable development and based on our conclusions offer suggestions for future research. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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| 16. |
- Povitkina, Marina, et al.
(författare)
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Democracy, Quality of Government, and Public Goods Provision: The Case of Water Management
- 2018
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Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- A large strand of research has argued that democracy with its broad representation and electoral accountability is beneficial for the provision of public goods to the general population. However, there is a large variation in how the existing democratic regimes perform, implying that democratic institutions are not sufficient to secure people’s wellbeing. The aim of this paper is to explore the sources of this variation. With the point of departure in theories on democracy, quality of government, and public goods provision, we posit that the way democracies perform in the delivery of public goods to their citizens depends on the presence of good quality institutions that shape the implementation of public policies. Using a mixed method design, this paper both empirically tests this proposition and offers an in-depth investigation into the mechanisms behind the interdependent relationship. In the first stage of our analysis, we explicitly test the conditional effects of democracy and quality of government on public goods provision using water quality as an example of such public good. The results show that democracy is associated with higher water quality only in countries where quality of government is high. In contexts with low governmental quality, more democracy even seems to be associated with higher water pollution. In the second stage of our analysis, we proceed with examining the mechanisms of how poor quality of government disrupts the positive effects of democracy on people’s access to safe drinking water using interview data from a typical case of Moldova.
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| 17. |
- Povitkina, Marina, et al.
(författare)
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Environmental Commitments in Different Types of Democracies: The Role of Liberal, Social-liberal, and Deliberative Politics
- 2021
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Ingår i: SSRN Electronic Journal. - Göteborg : Göteborgs universitet. - 1556-5068.
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Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Ever since the recognition of ongoing, human-induced, large-scale environmental degradation, from the early 1960s onwards, the scholarly community has looked at democracy with mixed feelings. Some assert, quite openly, that democracy is devastating for the environmental performance of countries, some claim the opposite, while yet other scholars suggest that democratic models other than liberal democracy may offer a route forwards, towards a sustainable society. Both political theorists and empirical social scientists add fuel to this debate, and neither side has of yet settled the argument. For obvious reasons, political theorists typically lack empirical evidence for most of their assertions as to whether democracy per se, or different variants of democracy, are more or less pro-environmental. In parallel, empirically oriented scholarship has been impaired with poor data, often obstructing them from properly evaluating democracy’s actual environmental pros and cons. In this paper we make use of recently collected unique data, enabling us to better address both these literatures. Using the data gathered by the Varieties of Democracy project on different conceptions of democracy, we empirically test whether different features of democracy, such as liberal in its thinner understanding, social- liberal, and deliberative, are beneficial for countries’ commitment to environmental improvements. In particular, we investigate which of these distinct features make democracies more prone to deliver environmental policy outputs, i.e., adopt climate laws, develop stricter environmental policies and incorporate sustainability into economic policies.
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| 18. |
- Povitkina, Marina, et al.
(författare)
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Environmental commitments in different types of democracies: The role of liberal, social-liberal, and deliberative politics
- 2022
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Ingår i: Global Environmental Change-Human and Policy Dimensions. - : Elsevier BV. - 0959-3780. ; 74
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Since a more substantial recognition of environmental degradation in the 1960s, the scholarly community has looked at democracy with mixed feelings. Some assert that democracy is devastating for the environmental performance, some claim the opposite, while others suggest that certain democratic models are more successful than others in paving the way for sustainability. Both political theorists and empirical scholars add fuel to this debate, and neither has settled the argument yet. In this paper we make use of recently collected data from the Varieties of Democracy project on different conceptions of democracy and address both these literatures. We empirically test whether different features of democracies, i.e., liberal in its thinner understanding, social-liberal, and deliberative, are more or less beneficial for environmental commitments. We investigate which of these features make democracies more prone to produce environmental policy outputs - adopt climate laws, deliver on them, develop stringent environmental policies, and incorporate sustainability into economic policies. We find that democracies with stronger deliberative features adopt more, but not necessarily stricter or more effective, environmental policies. Instead, democracies with stronger social-liberal features adopt both stricter and more effective policies.
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| 19. |
- Povitkina, Marina, et al.
(författare)
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Fresh pipes with dirty water: How quality of government shapes the provision of public goods in democracies
- 2019
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Ingår i: European Journal of Political Research. - : Wiley. - 0304-4130 .- 1475-6765. ; 58:4, s. 1191-1212
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- A large strand of research holds that democracy with its broad representation and electoral accountability is beneficial for the provision of public goods. Yet, there is a large variation in how democracies perform, indicating that democratic institutions alone do not suffice for securing citizens' wellbeing. Recent studies have stressed the equal importance of state capacity for public goods delivery. These studies, however, rarely investigate how the lack of state capacity mutes the effects of democratic institutions on public goods provision. This article addresses this gap by using a mixed methods design. First, the conditional effects of democracy and quality of government (QoG) are tested on the previously under-researched domain of the provision of clean water. The results show that democracy is associated with higher water quality only in countries where QoG is high. If QoG is low, more democracy is even related to lower water quality. The second stage of the analysis proceeds by examining how poor QoG disrupts the effects of democracy on public access to safe drinking water using interview data from a typical case of Moldova. The analysis illustrates that democracy has a number of positive effects and incentivises politicians to focus on the visible aspects of water provision, including the expansion of the water pipe network. However, low QoG hampers adoption and implementation of long-term policies necessary for securing an aspect of water provision that is harder to achieve - namely water quality. This leaves the fresh pipes with dirty water.
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| 20. |
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| 21. |
- Povitkina, Marina
(författare)
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"Green" Potential of Small Island States. A Comparative Study
- 2015
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Ingår i: Bäckstrand K., Kronsell A. (eds) "Rethinking the Green State: Environmental Governance towards Climate and Sustainability Transitions". - London : Routledge. - 9781138792517 ; , s. 104-
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Bokkapitel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Small, isolated and vulnerable, island states tend to share characteristics favorable to the development of a green state. Being united on small closed patches of land, islanders are believed to nurture social capital, cohesiveness, homogeneity in attitudes and a common goal to protect their environmentally vulnerable country from ecological risks. Since all these characteristics facilitate responsive democracies, good institutions and collaborative environmental management, small island states have a potential to develop into green states. The chapter summarizes theoretical arguments to why this is the case and tests whether evidence of “green” transformation is found in small islands’ environmental performance.
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| 22. |
- Povitkina, Marina
(författare)
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National and Sub-national Policies and Institutions
- 2022
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Ingår i: IPCC, 2022: Climate Change 2022: Mitigation of Climate Change. Contribution of Working Group III to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [P.R. Shukla, J. Skea, R. Slade, A. Al Khourdajie, R. van Diemen, D. McCollum, M. Pathak, S. Some, P. Vyas, R. Fradera, M. Belkacemi, A. Hasija, G. Lisboa, S. Luz, J. Malley, (eds.)]. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK and New York, NY, USA. doi: 10.1017/9781009157926. - 9789291691609
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Bokkapitel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- IPCC report, Working Group III
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| 23. |
- Povitkina, Marina
(författare)
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Necessary but not Sustainable? The Limits of Democracy in Achieving Environmental Sustainability
- 2018
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The world today faces a number of environmental problems that are both severe and urgent. Finding effective solutions is one of the top priorities for the international community, with at least half of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals relating either directly or indirectly to reaching environmental sustainability. The question is: How to reach these goals? Environmental problems pose a complex dilemma for decision-makers. They have low visibility, a slow response time to policy interventions and often require multi-pronged policy solutions that are sufficiently funded, supported and rigorously enforced. Yet, they are rarely the first priority for voters. Solutions to environmental problems therefore rely on long-term vision and commitments, appropriate expertise, as well as institutions that can secure compliance from all the relevant actors. This dissertation looks at the political institutions that, it is argued, make countries more likely to commit to and reach environmental sustainability goals. It revisits previous findings indicating that democratic institutions are more conducive to securing strong environmental performance. Democracy, which shapes the rules of preference aggregation and thus influences environmental decision-making and policy adoption, does not necessarily guarantee that these policies will be successfully implemented. This dissertation argues that the performance of democracies in achieving environmental sustainability depends on the quality of government, which, broadly, encompasses the absence of corruption, high rule of law and high bureaucratic capacity. Quality of government shapes the implementation of public policies, but it may also affect the incentives of decision-makers in environmental policy-making. This dissertation hypothesizes that democracy and quality of government interact in the production of environmental sustainability outcomes. The five articles included in the dissertation test this overarching hypothesis on four key Sustainable Development Goals related to environmental sustainability: the reduction of CO2 emissions to avert climate change, preparedness for natural disasters that may arise as a result of climate change, the provision of energy, and the provision of clean water. The results are consistent across the studies and show that more democracy is only beneficial for environmental sustainability outcomes when high quality of government is in place. However, when quality of government is low, democracies tend to underperform, doing no better or doing even worse than authoritarian regimes. Corruption, weak public administration, and lack of rule of law undermine incentives for and the credibility of policy efforts, and obstruct the implementation of public policies related to environmental sustainability, thus limiting democratic governments’ ability to act in the long-term interests of the public.
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| 24. |
- Povitkina, Marina, et al.
(författare)
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Quality of Government and Environmental Sustainability
- 2021
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Ingår i: The Oxford Handbook of the Quality of Government. - : Oxford University Press. - 9780198858218
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Bokkapitel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Previous research on the relationship between quality of government (QoG) and environmental sustainability is scant, scattered across different disciplines, and is characterized by a disconnect between studies focusing on the effects of QoG on the micro level (individual behavior) and micro level (country policies and actions). The chapter synthesizes the different literatures on the connection between various elements of QoG, such as low levels of corruption, bureaucratic capacity, and rule of law, on the one hand, and environmental sustainability on the other hand. On the macro level, it theorizes the role of QoG in securing governments’ production of environmental public goods. On the micro level, the chapter discusses how QoG can shape cooperation in collective action dilemmas over natural resource use, as well as how it contributes to generating public support of and compliance with environmental policies.
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| 25. |
- Povitkina, Marina
(författare)
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The limits of democracy in tackling climate change
- 2018
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Ingår i: Environmental Politics. - : Informa UK Limited. - 0964-4016 .- 1743-8934. ; 27:3, s. 411-432
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Previous research has shown that democracies exhibit stronger commitments to mitigate climate change and, generally, emit less carbon dioxide than non-democratic regimes. However, there remains much unexplained variation in how democratic regimes perform in this regard. Here it is argued that the benefits of democracy for climate change mitigation are limited in the presence of widespread corruption that reduces the capacity of democratic governments to reach climate targets and reduce CO2 emissions. Using a sample of 144 countries over 1970–2011, the previously established relationship between the amount of countries’ CO2 emissions and their level of democracy is revisited. It is empirically tested whether this relationship is instead moderated by the levels of corruption. The results indicate that more democracy is only associated with lower CO2 emissions in low-corruption contexts. If corruption is high, democracies do not seem to do better than authoritarian regimes. © 2018 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
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| 26. |
- Povitkina, Marina, et al.
(författare)
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Why are carbon taxes unfair? Disentangling public perceptions of fairness
- 2020
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Ingår i: SSRN Electronic Journal. - : Elsevier BV. - 1556-5068.
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Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In order to reach climate goals, governments need to gain support from their voters for the necessary policy interventions, such as carbon dioxide taxes. Previous research concludes that people often do not support and legitimize such taxes because they perceive them as unfair. However, the notion of fairness implies a multitude of factors and we currently lack an understanding of what people mean when they regard carbon taxes as unfair. In this article, we thoroughly investigate this problem by using original survey data from YouGov collected in the US in 2018 and analyzing open-ended survey responses on why people think carbon taxes are unfair. Applying structural text modeling, we unpack the multi-dimensional meaning of unfairness, as perceived by the US population. Results from our analysis help provide a more nuanced policy design to address fairness concerns related to carbon taxes.
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| 27. |
- Povitkina, Marina, et al.
(författare)
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Why are carbon taxes unfair? Disentangling public perceptions of fairness
- 2021
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Ingår i: Global Environmental Change. - : Elsevier. - 0959-3780 .- 1872-9495. ; 70
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In order to reach climate goals, governments need to gain support from their voters for the necessary policy interventions, such as carbon dioxide taxes. Previous research concludes that people often do not support and legitimize such taxes because they perceive them as unfair. However, the notion of fairness implies a multitude of factors and despite attempts of the previous research to further nuance people’s fairness perceptions, we currently lack a more precise understanding of what people mean when they regard carbon taxes as unfair. In this article, we thoroughly investigate this problem by using original survey data from YouGov collected in the United States in 2018 and analyzing open-ended survey responses on why people think carbon taxes are unfair. Applying structural topic modeling, we unpack the multi-dimensional meaning of unfairness, as perceived by the US population. The results from our analysis show that people regard carbon taxes based on gas pricing as unfair because they perceive gas prices already being high, because of the need to drive, unfairness for the poor or rural population, lack of trust in government, or considerations that the purpose of the tax is unjustified. These findings help provide a more nuanced policy design to address fairness concerns related to carbon taxes.
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| 28. |
- Sjöstedt, Martin, 1977, et al.
(författare)
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Vulnerability of Small Island Developing States to Natural Disasters. How Much Difference Can Effective Governments Make?
- 2017
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Ingår i: Journal of Environment and Development. - : SAGE Publications. - 1070-4965. ; 26:1, s. 82-105
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Small island developing states (SIDS) have been identified as particularly vulnerable to natural disasters and climate change. However, although SIDS have similar geographical features, natural hazards produce different outcomes in different states, indicating variation in vulnerability. The objective of this article is to explore the sources of this variation. With the point of departure in theories about how political institutions affect adaptive capacities, this article sets out to investigate whether government effectiveness has an impact on the vulnerability of SIDS. While claims over the importance of institutions are common in the literature, there is a lack of empirical accounts testing the validity of such claims. This shortcoming is addressed by this study’s time-series cross-sectional analysis using data from the International Disaster Risk database and the Quality of Government data set. The results show that government effectiveness has strong and significant effects on the number of people killed and affected by natural disasters.
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| 29. |
- Ulla, Erik, et al.
(författare)
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Political Headwind: How wind power development influences political trust
- 2023
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Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Most policy projects aimed at environmental protection are conflictual in their nature and have supporters and opponents. If a policy is implemented without taking into consideration the opinions of policy opponents, there is a risk of disappointment with political actors, lowered political trust and even dissatisfaction with democracy among them. In our paper, we explore how environmental policy projects, namely, installment of wind turbines, disrupt political trust among policy opponents. We conducted semi-structured interviews with policy opponents who live in proximity of completed and planned wind turbines on Haramsøya and Bjerkreim in Norway. We found that the reason why opponents might lose political trust is, first and foremost, lack of procedural fairness, as they become unhappy with the secretive, abusive, and unfair process; disappointment with institutional performance in policy implementation process; people's attempts at participation in development processes failing or being ignored by authorities and decision makers; and increased polarization in the society through increased hostility and distrust towards opposing groups. All factors play a role in a decreased political trust among opponents of wind turbines at the planning stage and after the completion of the project, although polarization is less pronounced before the project is implemented. Our results shed light on the potential sources of political discontent among citizens living in proximity to wind turbines and need to be taken into account by policymakers in the planning stage of wind power development.
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