From “Prime Mover” to “Victim of Change”: Political Environmentalism in Central and Eastern Europe (1998)

Rather than being an overview of the actors and the strategies promoting the rise of ecologically sound post-socialist societies in East Central Europe (ECE), the function of this paper is to provide a set of background information. In the following section (no. 2), the reader will be reminded of the precarious relationship between socialism and environmental protection, both in terms of institutions and excessive pollution. The subsequent section (no. 3) will throw some light on the impact of environmental groups in the breakdown of socialist regimes in ECE. Section no. 4 aims at an assessment of what is happening to the environment in the process of wholesale societal reform and, in particular, through the influence of external pressure and financial assistance following the transition from socialism.