Department of Social Research, University of Turku, Assistentinkatu 7, 20014, Turku, Finland.
INVEST Research Flagship Centre, University of Turku, Assistentinkatu 7, 20014, Turku, Finland.
Ambio. 2025 Jan;54(1):43-56. doi: 10.1007/s13280-024-02054-z. Epub 2024 Aug 13.
In this article, we examine the longitudinal development of economy-over-environment policy priorities in Finland during a period marked by several significant adverse societal events. In addition, we explore the influence of political trust on these priorities over time. We utilize a five-round panel dataset comprising 2155 observations (N = 431) to examine both within-individual and between-individual variations from late 2017 to early 2023. Our findings reveal a significant increase in the prioritization of the economy in each observation period following the COVID-19 outbreak. However, this trend is not observed among individuals with high levels of political trust. The within-individual analysis indicates that high political trust moderates, rather than causes, higher economy-over-environment prioritization. Our study highlights the significance of political trust as a preventing factor against the deprioritization of environmental policies, particularly when societies confront significant and intersecting adverse events.
本文考察了在经历多次重大社会负面事件的背景下，芬兰在经济优先于环境政策方面的长期发展情况。此外，我们还探讨了政治信任对这些政策重点随时间变化的影响。我们使用了一个包含 2155 个观测值（N=431）的五轮面板数据集，从 2017 年底到 2023 年初，分别考察了个体内和个体间的变化。我们的研究结果表明，在 COVID-19 爆发后，每个观察期内经济的优先级都显著增加。然而，在政治信任度较高的个体中并没有观察到这一趋势。个体内分析表明，高政治信任度会缓和而不是导致经济优先于环境的优先级提高。本研究强调了政治信任作为防止环境政策降权的重要因素，尤其是当社会面临重大且相互交织的负面事件时。
