How have environmental movements contributed to the development of democratic civil societies in Eastern Europe?

Résumé du document

1989 was the springtime of societies aspiring to be civil. As Garton Ash puts it, one of the major challenges regarding the transition from the communist rule to democracy, was the development of a civil society. Citizens of Eastern Europe had been deprived of the possibility to freely organize themselves into associations. The state was everywhere, controlling almost every aspect of the lives of its citizens. It lacked the fundamental rights which allow for a democratic civil society to exist, such as free press, freedom of association or freedom of speech. Therefore, in 1989, the development of a democratic civil society was crucial, as it was an element which was seen as a way to reinforce the newly created democratic institutions. Civil society refers to those free associations located between the intimate sphere of the family and outside the political control of the state. It can be defined more precisely as Pickvance puts it, as the realm of political protest and civil activities, which is extra-parliamentary and which does not seek to gain power but to limit it.

Extraits

[...] Therefore, environmental movements presented interesting characteristics with regard to the type of civil society that needed to be created. The process of Westernisation of environmental movements After the transition, funding problems and the decrease in membership put a lot of environmental movements in difficulty. A lot of the organisations that existed prior to the transition simply disappeared. New ones were created and the remaining ones adapted to the new constraints. The western funds which were provided to help them develop were subject to conditions. [...]

[...] In this context, environmental movements could play a significant role. In fact, environmental movements in Eastern Europe were not, as their western counterparts, critical of the capitalist economic system. For the movement activists, there was no link between liberal capitalism and environmental destruction. As the interviews carried out in Czechoslovakia by Jehlicka, Sarre and Podoba (2005:73) point it out; the members of these movements had rather an anthropocentric way of comprehending environmental issues. As they concluded, in the minds of the respondents, ‘liberal democracy and the market economy are taken to be the preconditions for effective solutions to environmental problems.'(2005:69). [...]

[...] In this regard, environmental movements constituted a great interest. Not only was there a pressing need to deal with environmental degradation, but environmental movements were organisations which were thought to fit well within the new political system and could help to develop the kind of civil society that was needed in the new market economy and democratic contexts. The environmental movements as actors of the democratic civil society The need for a democratic civil society able to foster the democratisation of the institutions of the state seemed to be taken for granted by Western powers. [...]

[...] The environmental protests started in Poland in 1980, and then spread to the rest of the region, focusing on different national issues, such as air and water pollution in Czechoslovakia, the hydroelectric power project on the Danube in 1988, or air pollution in Bulgaria. There was a great increase in membership. Not only did environmental movements increase in terms of their size, but they also shifted their attention towards issues that were more politically sensitive. They became more openly critical of the regime. [...]

[...] They have finally been through a phase of what is usually referred to as ‘Westernisation', when their development tended to match the patterns of the western NGOs. Throughout these different phases, their contribution to the development of a democratic civil society is significant. They started as tolerated but state-controlled citizen organisations, before becoming vehicles of political protest, and finally ended up as professional and policy-oriented organisations. Their contribution to the development of a democratic civil society has therefore greatly evolved, depending on political circumstances and historical developments. It has also varies from one country to another. [...]