Chris G. Pickvance - Local Environmental Regulation in Post-Socialism: A Hungarian Case Study

Chris Pickvance
University of Kent

First published 2003 by Ashgate Publishing

Reissued 2018 by Routledge
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Copyright Chris Pickvance 2003

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A Library of Congress record exists under LC control number: 2003056038

ISBN 13: 978-1-138-71596-7 (hbk)
ISBN 13:978-1-315-19727-2 (ebk)

The research on which this book is based was financed by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) under grant R000236579 'Environmental policy implementation by local government in Hungary'. The co-grantholders and project directors were Dr Katy Pickvance and myself. We are very grateful to the ESRC for the confidence they placed in us.

A project of this type incurs numerous debts. Most of all I would like to thank Katy Pickvance for her contributions at all stages of the research, and particularly in the planning, in converting our original ideas into practical research procedures, in choosing and liasing with our Hungarian collaborators, in ensuring that the fieldwork was carried out satisfactorily, and in translating some of the interview transcripts. Without her the research would have been neither possible nor enjoyable.

A second major debt is to the Hungarian academics who conducted the interviews on which are based. Franoise Simmons ably translated many of the interview transcripts.

Lastly, I would like to thank Tams Fleischer, Katy Pickvance, and Chris Rootes for their comments on parts of this book, Chris Hann who encouraged us to revise and resubmit our research application after it had initially been rejected, and Nick Brawn who prepared the camera-ready copy. I am grateful to all these collaborators.

The book is dedicated to the memory of Gaby Lng, my mother-in-law, and of my parents, Joseph and Else Pickvance, all of whom passed away very recently.

Chris Pickvance
School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research, University of Kent,
Canterbury.

The subject of local environmental regulation in post-socialism brings together two of the most important developments of our time: the emergence of the environment as a political issue, and the 'collapse' of state socialism in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.

The rise of environmentalism is an uneven process across space and its political saliency for governments fluctuates over time. Nevertheless the direction of the general trend is not in question. The meaning of environmentalism can range from a 'deep green' concern to transform the economic, social and political system in order to place respect for the environment at the heart of all decision making, to a 'light green' concern to give greater priority to environmental effects without a basic change in economic systems or lifestyles.

In this book we shall be concerned with environmental regulation as practised by governments. Inevitably, given the balance of public opinion and the interdependence of governments with existing economic structures, the environmental measures we shall discuss are at the light green end of the spectrum. They do not involve major shifts in economic systems or lifestyles. They are in fact part of what is called the 'ecological modernization' problematic. This is 'the discourse that recognizes the structural character of the environmental problematic but nonetheless assumes that existing political, economic, and social institutions can internalize care for the environment' (Hajer, 1995, p. 25). This way of thinking can be seen as a response which side-steps the thrust of radical, deep green demands by claiming that a greener way of running existing structures is possible. It leads governments to make In this way negative environmental impacts can be kept within acceptable limits. According to the ecological modernization problematic these restraints are not necessarily at the expense of economic growth, and indeed the pursuit of environmental protection creates new markets for environmentally-friendly products and technologies.

Turning to Eastern Europe, the end of state socialism has had the most drastic repercussions for the people of the region. There has been a fundamental economic restructuring and by 2000 in only a few countries in Eastern Europe had GNP per capita returned to its 1989 level. The result is that the coming of multi-party elections has not ushered in better living conditions on average. Moreover social inequalities have widened. In the political sphere the end of state socialism has transformed superpower politics and has had an impact on domestic Western European politics where it has combined with neo-liberalism to delegitimize socialist policies. Most important for us however is the process of European Union enlargement, in which Hungary is among the group of Eastern European countries which hopes for membership around 2004. This will mean that issues which were inter-national become intra-EU matters too. Industrial location has long transcended national boundaries, and trans-boundary pollution does likewise. However, preparation for accession to the EU means that Eastern European countries have to bring their environmental legislation into line with that of the EU to avoid any possibility that they might obtain an 'unfair' competitive advantage in the market for mobile industrial investment by offering lower environmental standards to firms operating there.

However to tackle broad subjects such as 'How far has the end of state socialism led to privatization and democracy and transformed local economies and political systems in Eastern Europe?' and 'How far has expected EU membership had an impact on local environmental regulation?' would require a different type of research from that on which the book is based. Hence such questions are not of primary concern here.

The aims of the book are both descriptive and explanatory. They are: