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Recent democratization and the accompanied liberalization of the media in Central and Eastern Europe has brought the devastating environmental impacts of the intensive and careless industrialization of the last 40 years to the surface. Less is known, however, about the social, political and institutional background of environmental risk management which led to the present situation, as well as about recent changes.
Environment and Democratic Transition: Policy and Politics in Central and Eastern Europe provides an overview of the mechanism of policy making, the role of the scientific community, the environmental movements, and the public in risk controversies in Central and Eastern Europe from the 1970s until 1991. The book brings together studies by leading social scientists from the East and the West who investigate the economic, legal, institutional, behavioral, social and political aspects of environmental policy. In addition to analyzing past histories, most contributions focus also on challenges, pitfalls and dilemmas that the region's policy makers and environmentalists must face during the period of transition and into the future.
List of contents
1. Environmental Policy and Politics in Central and Eastern Europe: Introduction and Overview.- 2. Environmental Policy in the Czech and Slovak Republic.- 3. Environmental Affairs and the Emergence of Pluralism in Poland: A Case of Political Symbiosis.- 4. Environmental Policy in a Transition Economy: The Bulgarian Example.- 5. Public Participation Laws, Regulations and Practices in Seven Countries in Central and Eastern Europe: An Analysis Emphasizing Impacts on the Development Decision-Making Process.- 6. Environmental Initiatives in Russia: East-West Comparisons.- 7. The Structural Mechanisms of the Organization of Ecological-Social Movements in Hungary.- 8. Environmental Protest as a Vehicle for Transition: The Case of Ekoglasnost in Bulgaria.- 9. An International Environmental Conflict on the Danube: The Gabcikovo-Nagymaros Dams.- 10. Environmental Conflict and Political Change: Public Perception on Low-Level Radioactive Waste Management in Hungary.- 11. Ecological Consciousness in the USSR: Entering the 1990s.- 12. Environmental Risks in a Society in Transition: Perceptions and Reactions.- Index of Subjects.
