Exploring Drivers of Mass Policy Feedback: The Case of French Energy Policy

Sustainability transitions largely depend on support by mass publics in order to be successful. The French Yellow Vest movement is an often cited example for backlash by mass publics against cost-imposing policy intervention. Triggered by this movement, in early 2019, the French government launched the biggest public consultation process – the Grand Debate – in the country’s history, with more than 10.000 town hall meetings and 2.000.000 online contributions. So far, there is only anecdotal evidence on the scope and nature of French public opinion towards energy policy within this consultation process. This is surprising given its unprecedented scale and given the insights a systematic analysis may generate. Here, we aim to address this gap by answering the following questions: How salient are energy policy measures in French public opinion, and what drives this salience? Specifically, we exploit geographic variation to investigate how public opinion salience responds to the local deployment of renewable energy technologies. In addressing these questions, we contribute to a broader theoretical debate on the political feasibility of sustainability transitions, and the role of policy feedback from mass publics therein. Methodologically, we proceed in two steps. First, we use structural topic modelling (STM) to identify the issues and solutions related to climate change mitigation, which have been put forward in the consultation process. Second, using regression analyses, we analyze potential drivers of geographical differences in topic salience and proposed solutions, with a focus on the role of local deployment of renewable energy technologies. Beyond providing relevant empirical and theoretical contributions to policy feedback and energy policy literature, our analysis may also help to develop actionable policy recommendations to decrease future mass backlash against energy and climate policy.