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Unequal treatment perceptions and rural backlashes against carbon taxation

David Hope et al.

European Journal of Political Research2026https://doi.org/10.1017/s1475676526101054article
ABDC A
Weight
0.50

Abstract

Why do we see such strong backlashes against carbon taxes in rural areas? In this article, we focus on the role of perceptions in rural communities that the government unfairly advantages the urban centres of political and economic power. We argue that when people living in rural areas perceive of unequal treatment by the state, they are less supportive of carbon taxes, because they believe that carbon taxes unfairly punish those that have already been disadvantaged by the state. We carry out a survey with a representative sample of around 3000 respondents from the United Kingdom to test our argument. We provide observational and experimental evidence showing that for those living in rural areas, increased perceptions of unequal treatment by the state reduce the perceived fairness of carbon taxes and substantially lower support for carbon taxation. Our results suggest that tackling deep-rooted resentments around unequal treatment in rural areas is crucial for building broad public support for carbon taxation.

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https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1017/s1475676526101054

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@article{david2026,
  title        = {{Unequal treatment perceptions and rural backlashes against carbon taxation}},
  author       = {David Hope et al.},
  journal      = {European Journal of Political Research},
  year         = {2026},
  doi          = {https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1017/s1475676526101054},
}

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Unequal treatment perceptions and rural backlashes against carbon taxation

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Evidence weight

0.50

Balanced mode · F 0.40 / M 0.15 / V 0.05 / R 0.40

F · citation impact0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20
M · momentum0.50 × 0.15 = 0.07
V · venue signal0.50 × 0.05 = 0.03
R · text relevance †0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20

† Text relevance is estimated at 0.50 on the detail page — for your query’s actual relevance score, open this paper from a search result.