Environmental Demands in Motion: Protest Dynamics and Public Opinion in Germany

• In Event: Causes and Consequences of Public Opinion in Europe

Abstract

Environmental issues have gained more prominent attention in previous years due to the intensification of the climate crisis and the emerging (re-)distributional challenges it posits. In Europe, social movements advocating for environmental protection and policies to tackle climate change have grown and diversified in terms of tactics and demands. Increasingly, environmental movements have begun to combine different issue claims, mostly mixing exclusively environmental with socio-economic and civil rights protest demands. However, this strategy of issue-bricolage and its causes and effects remain understudied – as well as its link with population preferences. We hypothesize that issue-bricolage has intensified in recent years as a function of the overall salience of the environment and the climate issue, thus potentially expanding the range of the movement’s supporters. First, we investigate German protest events (1950-2022) to identify how issue-bricolage dynamics of environmental movements have developed compared to other protest issues. Second, we connect environmental protest dynamics with preferences among the population. We test a bidirectional model relating public opinion and protest dynamics by exploiting available survey data over time. Third, we conduct a survey experiment to study how the combination of different sub-issues affects preferences on environmental policies. The results highlight how and when issue bricolage can become a winning strategy in public opinion. Thus, our study contributes to a better understanding of social movement strategies and their influence on public opinion.

Authors

• Sophia Hunger, WZB Berlin Social Science Center

• Swen Hutter

• Daniel Felipe Saldivia Gonzatti, WZB Berlin Social Science Center