Green Politics under Authoritarian Regimes

Abstract

This panel seeks to analyse environmental protest within authoritarian and semi-authoritarian states, not necessarily from the perspective of transition/democratization, but considering the role that movements play in environmental protection and also in the process of wider political and social change. Differing political and resource contexts, as well as contrasting conceptualisations of environment and the role of citizens, offer a valuable perspective from which to examine embedded assumptions about environmental politics. Should we necessarily assume that environmental movements in authoritarian states need to professionalise and connect with international donors and global movement networks? What impact will political and economic liberalisation actually have on enmeshed grass roots organisations? Analysis of environmental protest in post-communist Europe has tended to offer little insight into such issues because the underlying assumption has been that these states are becoming western and that the new movements will behave like their western counterparts. Indeed the democratization paradigm serves largely to obfuscate the role of environmentalists during the authoritarian period, portraying such activism as transient and embryonic. This panel seeks contributions from area specialists and comparative researchers working on environmental activism in non-western democratic contexts.

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