1. How Policy Legitimacy affects Policy Support Throughout the Policy Cycle
- Author:
- SIMON MATTI, Sverker Jagers, Simon Matti, and Katarina Nordblom
- Publication Date:
- 11-2016
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Quality of Government Institute, University of Gothenburg,
- Abstract:
- We analyze the importance of legitimacy and compare how drivers of public policy attitudes evolve across the policy process consisting of the input (i.e., the processes forgoing acquisition of power and the procedures permeating political decision-making), throughput (i.e., the inclusion of and interactions between actors in a governance system), and output (i.e., the substantive consequences of those decisions) stages. Using unique panel data through the three phases of the congestion tax in the Swedish city of Gothenburg, we find that legitimacy is indeed important in explaining policy support. Moreover, we find a lingering effect where support in one phase depends on legitimacy both in the present and in previous phases. Hence, our study takes us one step further on the road to understand the complicated dynamic mechanisms behind the interactions between policy mak- ing, policy support, and the legitimacy and approval of politicians and political processes. Keywords: Policy, Support, Attitudes, Legitimacy, Policy Cycle, Environment, Congestion Tax
- Topic:
- Environment and Political Theory
- Political Geography:
- Sweden