Satisfaction with democracy and collective action problems: The case of the environment

Whether a country is able e ectively to address collective action problems is a critical test of its ability to ful ll the demands of its citizens to their satisfaction. We study one particularly important collective action problem: the environment. Using a large panel dataset covering 25 years for some countries, we nd that, overall, citizens of European countries are more satis ed with the way democracy works in their country if (a) more environmental policies are in place and if (b) expenditures on the environment are higher, but environmental taxes are lower. The relation between environmental policy and life satisfaction is not as pronounced. The evidence for the e ect of environmental quality on both satisfaction with democracy and life satisfaction is not very clear, although we nd evidence that citizens value personal mobility (in terms of having a car) highly, but view the presence of trucks as unpleasant. We also document that parents, younger citizens, and those with high levels of educational attainment tend to care more about environmental issues than do non-parents, older citizens, and those with fewer years of schooling. JEL Classi cation: K32, P16, Q21, Q28.