Considered effective? How policy evaluations and threat perceptions affect support for surveillance in the context of terrorism

Abstract

Surveillance policies aimed at combating terrorism and improving public security can also lead to constraints on civil liberties. In view of this trade‐off between the potential benefits and risks of surveillance, it is particularly important to study how effectiveness considerations shape public support for surveillance. We argue that effectiveness perceptions enhance policy support, but that the manner in which citizens view policy effectiveness depends on their perceptions of threats related to terrorism and to violations of civil liberties. Using data from a factorial survey experiment in Germany, we show that policy effectiveness is the most relevant predictor of citizens' support for different surveillance measures. Moreover, we find evidence that depending on the scope of surveillance, respondents perceiving threats to their liberty rely much less heavily on policy effectiveness as a criterion for evaluating policies, compared to those whose threat perception is low. Related Articles Awan, Imran. 2012.“‘I Am a Muslim Not an Extremist’: How the Prevent Strategy Has Constructed a ‘Suspect’ Community.” Politics & Policy 40(6): 1158–85. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1747-1346.2012.00397.x. Doan, Alesha E., and Corinne Schwarz. 2020. “Father Knows Best: ‘Protecting’ Women through State Surveillance and Social Control in Anti‐Abortion Policy.” Politics & Policy 48(1): 6–37. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12337. Jenkins‐Smith, Hank C., and Kerry G. Herron. 2009. “Rock and a Hard Place: Public Willingness to Trade Civil Rights and Liberties for Greater Security.” Politics & Policy 37(5): 1095–129. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1747-1346.2009.00215.x/abstract.

Public Attitudes Towards Government Surveillance of Social Media in Australia

“…In section three, the paper offers detailed analysis of citizen views of state surveillance in specific use cases. This enriches the statistical findings on general attitudes (e.g., Davis and Silver 2004), focusing on specific use cases in relation to online communication (see Christensen and Aars 2021;Degli Esposti, Ball, and Dibb 2021;Trüdinger and Ziller 2022).…”

“…The sociotechnical imaginaries in the findings contain further assumptions about governments and surveillance practices. As in Trüdinger and Ziller's (2022) research on German citizens, respondents hold assumptions about the effectiveness of social media surveillance by governments. The first group, for example, implicitly imagines that social media surveillance is effective at preventing terrorism and other violent events.…”

“…For example, attitudes to government surveillance have been found to be influenced by views of national security (Bakir et al 2015), citizens' trust in government institutions (Trüdinger and Steckermeier 2017), perceptions of police legitimacy (Gurinskaya 2020), and perceived transparency (Nam 2018). In recent work, Trüdinger and Ziller (2022) found that perceptions of government effectiveness in responding to threats were significant in determining citizen support for surveillance of communications, while Degli Esposti, Ball, and Dibb (2021) found that the perceived benevolence of security agencies was essential to citizen acceptability of state surveillance of communication technologies.…”

Costs, Inconvenience, or Civil Rights? Investigating Determinants of Public Support for Surveillance

“…Several authors have shown that respondents who perceived greater levels of threat from terrorism were less likely to support civil liberties (Davis and Silver 2004;Dietrich and Crabtree 2019) and more likely to support counterterrorism measures (Huddy et al 2005;Ziller and Helbling 2021). Studies on the German population have shown that being threatened by crime has a positive effect on acceptance of surveillance technologies (Trüdinger 2019;Van Heek, Arning, and Ziefle 2016). This lets me assume that the higher the threat, the greater the support for a policy (H1).…”

Note from the Editors

“…In this October 2022 issue of Politics & Policy ( P&P ) we offer a strong lineup of articles spanning an array of policy, public administration, and comparative international political issues. Trüdinger and Ziller (2022) add new insights from Germany to wider debates on the balance between security and civil liberties (see e.g., Doan & Schwarz, 2020; Jenkins‐Smith & Herron, 2009) in their article on policy effectiveness and public support for different kinds of counterterror surveillance policies. Fowler's (2022) excellent contribution tackles party polarization on environmental policy in the United States Congress (see also in P&P : Dunning, 2021; Gershtenson et al, 2006).…”