How Do People Think About Industrial Policy? Survey Evidence from Germany and the United States

After decades of market-oriented policymaking, industrial policy has returned to the center of economic governance. Governments are channeling billions toward strategic sectors and technologies to address climate change, technological transformation, and geopolitical competition. As industrial policy has become increasingly visible and politically contested, this raises fundamental questions about democratic legitimacy and public support. Yet we still know little about how citizens think about industrial policy. This paper addresses this gap with a survey in Germany and the United States focused on the automotive industry. It combines three elements: a qualitative study of citizens’ mental models, a conjoint experiment on policy design preferences, and a vignette experiment on susceptibility to elite framing. Together, these studies examine how people reason about state intervention in strategic industries, weigh competing policy objectives, and evaluate different conditionality regimes. Our findings advance research on how people reason about economic policies, clarify the attitudinal foundations of industrial policy, and speak to its democratic legitimacy. As industrial policy moves from “quiet politics” to public debate, understanding public support is crucial for assessing its political viability and long-term sustainability.