Movement-Mediated Vertical Policy Feedback: How Local Governments Might Catalyze Climate Action by Resourcing and Channeling Social Movements

Across the country, city, school district, and county governments have long been leaders on climate action. Meanwhile, much of the action by states and the federal government is stalled or is being reversed. Though local governments’ efforts are promising, they alone cannot achieve the emissions reductions required to meet national and international climate targets. Nascent literature examines the role of interest groups in cross-jurisdictional policy feedback, but scant research considers this feedback between local governments and higher levels of government or considers the use of social movements as a medium of policy feedback. I propose a framework of movement-mediated vertical policy feedback, arguing that local governments can advance climate policy at higher levels by strategically resourcing, channeling, and removing policy barriers to social movement organizing. Drawing on 41 semi-structured interviews with climate organizers, elected officials, and bureaucrats in Austin, TX; Charlotte, NC; and Portland, OR, I examine how local policies shape the capacity and effectiveness of the climate movement. Interviewees identified challenges social movements and governments face and described local policies related to funding, physical space, input opportunities, education, social welfare, and policing as influencing climate organizing outcomes. My findings suggest that local governments—often unintentionally—play a significant role in enabling or constraining movements that pressure policymakers at higher levels of government. By understanding local policy as a lever for empowering social movements, this study contributes a new mechanism to policy feedback theory and offers insights for local governments seeking to advance climate action beyond their formal authority.