Hur politiker förankrar krävande miljöåtgärder

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Abstract

In order to reduce global warming, politicians may need to implement policies that are unpopular among significant groups of citizens. In this paper, we ask how and to what extent such unpopular policies are anchored democratically. Drawing on democratic theory, we identify three alternative approaches to democratic anchorage: anchorage through election pledges (promissory representation); anchorage through anticipatory measures (anticipatory representation), and no anchorage (silent representation). We derive observables and use these to conduct two illustrative case studies of local decisions aimed at changing citizens’ environmental behavior. Results indicate that policy decisions are anchored to a degree (but not fully anchored), and that anchorage through anticipatory measures is the most common approach by politicians.