Can citizen pressure influence politicians' communication about climate change? Results from a field experiment
Abstract
Urgent reductions in greenhouse gas emissions depend on governments implementing and enforcing rigorous climate policy. In democratic nations, the motivation of elected officials is limited by their perception of voter preference. Individuals seeking to persuade government officials to reduce greenhouse gas emissions can take a number of steps including voting, protesting and contacting officials directly, but it is unclear how effective each of these actions is in driving change. Here we present findings from a mixed-methods study that integrates evidence from a quantitative field experiment and qualitative in-depth interviews with legislative staff to assess the effectiveness of climate advocacy on the behavior of elected officials. We evaluate the actual efficacy of campaign emails using an original, real-world experiment that tests the responsiveness of 335 Members of Canadian Parliament to communications from their constituents. After scraping and coding 18776 tweets, we found no overall increase in pro-climate tweets from elected officials who received constituent contact compared to those who did not. However, among Members of Parliament from the governing Liberal Party there was some evidence that increased constituent contact led to an increased number of pro-climate tweets. Based on follow-up interviews with political staffers we suggest that campaign emails are only a marginally effective way to persuade politicians, and that future campaigns may benefit from incorporating more analog outreach.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2020
- Bibcode:
- 2020AGUFMSY0120002W
- Keywords:
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- 6324 Legislation and regulations;
- POLICY SCIENCES & PUBLIC ISSUES;
- 6620 Science policy;
- POLICY SCIENCES & PUBLIC ISSUES