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Greenwashing and public demand for government regulation
[journal article]
Abstract Environmental governance in many high-income democracies relies to some extent on self-regulation by the private sector. Yet, this policy mode is contested and proponents of top-down government regulation argue that voluntary corporate sustainability commitments remain shallow and rarely are more th... view more
Environmental governance in many high-income democracies relies to some extent on self-regulation by the private sector. Yet, this policy mode is contested and proponents of top-down government regulation argue that voluntary corporate sustainability commitments remain shallow and rarely are more than greenwashing. I assess to what extent firms’ business conduct is subject to societal checks and balances, in particular, whether public support for regulation constitutes a control mechanism of corporate contributions to environmental goods. I rely on an original survey experiment (N = 2112) conducted with a representative sample of the Swiss voting population. The analysis shows that accusing firms of greenwashing reduces both citizens' perceived effectiveness of self-regulation and perceived synergy of corporate profits and environmental protection. However, this attitudinal shift only translates into modest updates in respondents' policy preferences. As a result, short-run shifts in public support for regulation are an unlikely societal control mechanism of business conduct.... view less
Keywords
ISSP; sustainability; environmental protection; climate protection; statutary order; social control; environmental policy
Classification
Special areas of Departmental Policy
Ecology, Environment
Free Keywords
accountability; greenwashing; regulation; survey experiment; International Social Survey Programme: Role of Government V - ISSP 2016 (ZA6900 v2.0.0)
Document language
English
Publication Year
2023
Page/Pages
p. 179-198
Journal
Journal of Public Policy, 43 (2023) 1
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1017/S0143814X22000277
ISSN
0143-814X
Status
Published Version; peer reviewed