Building Bridges: Actor Involvement as a Remedy for Trust Deficits in Environmental Policy Support?

A lack of trust in governments amplifies collective action problems, weakening support for public goods policies, including those targeting environmental quality. Research suggests that involving a broader set of actors - such as local experts, international organisations, and businesses – in the policy design process can mitigate trust deficits and build public support, especially among individuals with low trust in government. However, this potential comes with trade-offs: multi-actor policy design may complicate coordination, challenge accountability, and affect perceptions of legitimacy. While such dynamics are increasingly studied in higher-trust, Western contexts, their relevance to lower-trust, lower-income settings remains unclear. This preregistered study (data collection in January/February 2025) investigates whether actor involvement can offset low government trust and enhance public support for air pollution policies in four urban contexts: Accra (GH), Johannesburg (ZA), Jakarta (ID), and Delhi (IN). It further examines how citizens perceive trade-offs associated with multi-actor approaches, such as potential coordination failures or accountability gaps, and whether these perceptions influence policy support. By addressing these issues, the study contributes to understanding how to attract majority support for ambitious environmental policies.