F07(b) - Public Opinion on Policy
Date: Jun 2 | Time: 03:15pm to 04:45pm | Location:
Chair/Président/Présidente : Florence Vallée-Dubois (Université de Montréal)
Discussant/Commentateur/Commentatrice : Michael Wigginton (University of Ottawa)
In Everyone's Interest: The Influence of Age on Public Spending Preferences in Canada: Florence Vallée-Dubois (Université de Montréal)
Abstract: Do senior citizens hold different public spending preferences than their younger counterparts? This question is of interest in the current context, where population ageing is putting additional financial strain on several social policies, including health care, education, pensions and employment insurance. Unfortunately, the literature on public opinion towards welfare still does not clearly identify the influence of age on public policy preferences. This is explained by the fact that many studies that aim to uncover age-group differences in public policy preferences might actually be revealing generational or temporary period effects, because they were conducted at only one point in time. Concluding that ageing is responsible for the development of specific policy preferences in individuals is therefore contentious. In this research, I make use of Canadian public opinion survey data since the 1980s to investigate the effect of age on public spending preferences (on education, health care, pensions) in this country, while distinguishing this factor from the influence of generations and time periods. This research consists in the first article of my doctoral thesis, which attempts to delineate the consequences of population ageing for democratic representation.
What Shapes Attitudes about Energy Transition?: Melanee Thomas (University of Calgary), Brooks DeCillia (University of Calgary), Lori Thorlakson (University of Alberta)
Abstract: Energy transition – that is, moving away from fossil fuels as a source of energy to more renewable and sustainable forms – is, according to some scholars, “technically feasible, but politically impossible” (Bernauer and McGrath 2016: 680), as democratic politics produce constraints that may stymie the adoption of low(er) carbon energy. Indeed, current events, including reactions to the 2019 federal election, show that aspects of Canadian identity affect views about if, when, and how best to transition to a low-carbon economy. This paper addresses two questions. First, how is public opinion about energy transition structured by existing attitudes about politics and/or climate change? Second, how malleable are those opinions? It draws on two survey experiments: one collected in Alberta immediately following their 2019 provincial election, and national sample collected in early 2020. Results show that the factors that produce support for, and opposition to energy transition are diverse and, at times, inconsistent and unexpected. Furthermore, these opinions appear to be malleable when exposed to news about the positive (and negative) economic effects of transition, as well as Indigenous support (and opposition) to the expansion of fossil fuel extraction. This suggests that attitudes about energy transition should be seen as at least somewhat distinct from attitudes about climate change.
Investigating the Macro-Political Outcomes of Deliberative Mini-Publics: Patricia Mockler (Queen's University)
Abstract: Deliberative mini-publics (DMP) are being used by governments to address complex policy issues regularly in Canada, the United Kingdom, and Ireland. There is little doubt that they have an impact on those who participate in them (Fournier et. al 2011). While deliberative mini-publics have the potential to have a “macro-political impact” (Goodin and Dryzek 2006), the nature of this impact remains understudied empirically. The majority of empirical research on mini-publics focuses on short-term events with a limited number of participants, raising questions about the broader implications of mini-publics for democratic citizenship.
This paper will address some of these broader implications by investigating the relationship between the decision-making processes used to create a given policy and citizens’ assessments of policy outcomes (Ladam 2019). More specifically, this paper asks if policies that are created using a deliberative mini-public are seen more positively than those created from the traditional policy-making process by the general public. The paper uses data from an online survey experiment to assess the impacts of the use of a DMP in influencing public perceptions of policy in Canada.