Public attitudes toward economic growth versus environmental sustainability dilemma: Evidence from Europe

Abstract

As global warming and other environmental threats intensify and become more visible, scientists are increasingly questioning the desirability of economic growth as an overarching national and global policy imperative. Several theories in environmental sociology and economics—degrowth, steady-state economy, and “agrowth”—offer compelling arguments that environmental sustainability and continuous economic growth are incompatible. However, there is a shortage of empirical evidence about public opinion on the growth versus environment dilemma, despite its great relevance for the social legitimacy of governments’ approach to the issue. In this article, we aim to narrow this research gap by applying multilevel models to data from the 2017 European Values Study (EVS). We find that the idea of sacrificing a certain level of growth for the sake of the environment receives high levels of support in most European countries. Nevertheless, within countries, we find clear indications of social divides in opinions regarding the growth versus environment dilemma: post-materialists, politically left-leaning people, the better-off, and the higher-educated are in favor of reduced growth, whereas materialists, right-wing individuals, and disadvantaged groups prioritize the economy over ecological concerns. At the country level, economic affluence is associated with greater support for reduced growth, irrespective of the differences in post-materialist values and the ecological situation. In practical terms, our results suggest that politicians can be bolder in promoting substantive environmental measures, even those that reduce growth.

Determinants of Public Support for Eco-Social Policies: A Comparative Theoretical Framework

“…In fact degrowth, understood as ‘equitable downscaling of production and consumption that increases human well-being and enhances ecological conditions at the local and global level, in the short and long term’ (Schneider et al ., 2010: 512), is argued to be impossible without solid eco-social measures (Büchs and Koch, 2017; Bohnenberger and Koch, 2020). In this regard, the evidence is relatively coherent: higher GDP per capita is associated with greater support for degrowth (Brechin and Kempton, 1994; Dunlap and Mertig, 1995; Gerhards and Lengfeld, 2008; Gugushvili, 2021). Accordingly, we propose that support for eco-social policies will be higher in more-affluent countries, because a stronger economic base makes these measures more affordable than in less wealthy countries.…”

Deliberating a Sustainable Welfare–Work Nexus

“…Previous research has comparatively explored the links between social-demographic factors such as class, gender, and age and attitudes toward sustainable welfare using the European Social Survey (Fritz and Koch 2019 ; Otto and Gugushvili 2020 ) and European Values Study data (Gugushvili 2021 ). Here, we look specifically into ecosocial policies and ask how popular the policy proposals developed throughout the citizen forums (previous section) actually are among the Swedish population.…”

Nuclear perceptions from radioactive blue to sustainable green: The EU taxonomy as reflection of a divided public

“…Structural transformation is required towards a more flexible, decentralised and preventive institution that creates networks with other societal actors and applies a variety of approaches and instruments to guide society in the direction of sustainability (Weale, 1993). Inclusion of social and financial sustainability, however is not without its critics, many of whom would prefer limiting sustainability to the context of the environment (Gugushvili, 2021) Approaches differ across professions; economists and ecologists represent ideas of ‘beliefs,’ while lawyers and engineers would favour regulatory thinking. Often, the actual situation represents shifts in the power balance between the various actors in each country (Pedersen, 2005).…”