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The social bases of nuclear energy policies in E urope: Ideology, proximity, belief updating and attitudes to risk
Author(s) -
Franchino Fabio
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
european journal of political research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.267
H-Index - 95
eISSN - 1475-6765
pISSN - 0304-4130
DOI - 10.1111/1475-6765.12029
Subject(s) - ideology , underpinning , public opinion , nuclear power , set (abstract data type) , nuclear power plant , energy (signal processing) , publics , space (punctuation) , explanatory power , power (physics) , political science , political economy , sociology , social psychology , politics , psychology , law , epistemology , computer science , engineering , biology , philosophy , mathematics , statistics , ecology , operating system , civil engineering , quantum mechanics , nuclear physics , programming language , physics
This article analyses the social bases underpinning the widely different trajectories of nuclear energy policies across W estern E uropean countries. Employing a set of surveys carried out in the last thirty years, it examines the conditional effects of ideology and geographical proximity to a nuclear power plant on attitudes toward nuclear energy, as well as the long‐ and short‐term dynamics of belief updating after the occurrence of major accidents. Results highlight how proximity can strengthen, weaken or have no effect on the ideological component of these attitudes. Moreover, the publics of most countries with experience in nuclear energy display the traits of B ayesian dynamics of belief updating, especially in the vicinity of a plant. The article also shows the fairly exceptional traits of French public opinion. In conclusion, the broad social constraints within which governments operate, across time and space, shed light on the different policy trajectories of E uropean countries.