Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Political Polarization And Long-Term Change In Public Support For Environmental Spending, Eric W. Johnson, Philip Schwadel

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Public support for environmental protection has evinced declines in recent years that are widely attributed to growing antipathy among self-identified Republicans. Fractures in what was long considered broad and enduring support for the environment in the United States have called attention to the broader sociopolitical context in which individual opinion on the environment is formed, and especially the role of political parties and their leaders in shaping opinion. Empirical analyses of environmental support, however, remain strongly focused on individual-level correlates of support. We apply recent methodological advances in age-period-cohort models to scrutinize changes in Americans’ willingness to pay more for …