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List of contents
1 Introduction: the Hungarian Context 2 Hypotheses on Local Environmental Regulation 3 Székesfehérvár: Magnet for Multinational Capital and Green Utopia? 4 Györ: a Traditional Industrial and County Town 5 Nagytétény: Past Pollution and Limited Prospects? 6 Dunaújváros: the Legacy Effects of Being a Steel Town 95 7 A Comparative Analysis of Environmental Regulation in the Four Localities 8 Settlement Type and Local Government Environmental Policy in Hungary: the Role of Local Economic Structure and Local Government Resources 9 Local Economic Situation, Local Environmental Mobilization and Local Government Environmental Policy in Hungary 10 Conclusion
Summary
This title was first published in 2003. This text examines Hungarian local environmental regulation in practice rather than what should happen according to national legislation. The book is based on interviews with officials, regulators, firm managers and environmental groups in four localities in Hungary and on a national survey of local government officials. Numerous quotations from interviews are included. It is shown that the local social and economic context influences the behaviour of both local governments and regional environmental inspectorates. Firms' responsiveness to regulation is studied and it is shown that while some firms are ready to pay moderate environmental fines others are afraid of even symbolic fines. The findings are set within debates in the international literature on environmental regulation. It is shown that there are convergences with patterns reported in developed capitalist societies, but that certain legacies from state socialism are compatible with these patterns.
