Environmental policy reform in the post-communist Czech Republic: The case of air pollution

Europe - Asia Studies

Volumn 53, Issue 2, 2001, Pages 313-327

  Horak, Martin ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO   (Canada)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ATMOSPHERIC POLLUTION; ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY; POLICY REFORM; POLITICAL SYSTEM; POST-COMMUNISM;

AIR POLLUTANT; AIR POLLUTION; ARTICLE; CZECH REPUBLIC; ECONOMICS; EDUCATION; ENVIRONMENT; ETHNOLOGY; GOVERNMENT; HISTORY; LEGAL ASPECT; POLICY; PUBLIC HEALTH; SOCIAL CHANGE;

AIR POLLUTANTS; AIR POLLUTION; CZECH REPUBLIC; ENVIRONMENT; GOVERNMENT PROGRAMS; HISTORY, 20TH CENTURY; PUBLIC HEALTH; PUBLIC POLICY; SOCIAL CHANGE;

CZECH REPUBLIC;

EID: 0035069571     PISSN: 09668136     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/09668130020032316     Document Type: Article

References (102)

1. Cited in Marek Salek, 'Svetla Titanicu', Respekt, 20 February 1995. Approximate translation by M. Horak.
2. Jurg Klarer & Patrick Francis, 'Regional Overview', in Jurg Klarer & Bedrich Moldan (eds), The Environmental Challenge for Central European Economies in Transition (Chichester, John Wiley & Sons, 1996), p. 17.
3. For detailed comparative information on environmental damage in late communist ECE see F. W. Carter & David Turnock (eds), Environmental Problems in Eastern Europe (London, Routledge, 1996).
4. See Bedrich Moldan et al., Zivotni prostredi Ceske republiky: Vyvoj a stav do konce roku 1989 (Prague, Academia, 1990), for a detailed discussion of these issues in the Czech case.
5. Catherine Albrecht, 'Environmental Policies and Politics in Contemporary Czechoslovakia', Studies in Comparative Communism, 20, 3/4, 1987, pp. 291-302.
6. Stanley Kabala, 'Czechoslovakia: The Reform of Environmental Policy', RFE/RL Report on Eastern Europe, 22 February 1991, p. 11.
7. Moldan et al., p. 159.
8. Carter & Turnock (eds).
9. Ibid, p. 75; Jan Brabec, 'Potkat tu cloveka je zazrak', Respekt, 17 February 1992.
10. Ibid, p. 75; Jan Brabec, 'Potkat tu cloveka je zazrak', Respekt, 17 February 1992.
11. Barbara Jancar-Webster, 'The East European Environmental Movement and the Transformation of East European Society', in Barbara Jancar-Webster (ed.), Environmental Action in Eastern Europe (Armonk, NY, M. E. Sharpe, 1993), p. 199. For a comparative exploration of environmental protest in late communist ECE see also Duncan Fisher, 'The Emergence of the Environmental Movement in Eastern Europe and Its Role in the Revolutions of 1989', in Barbara Jancar-Webster (ed.), Environmental Action in Eastern Europe (Armonk, NY, M. E. Sharpe, 1993), pp. 89-113.
12. Barbara Jancar-Webster, 'The East European Environmental Movement and the Transformation of East European Society', in Barbara Jancar-Webster (ed.), Environmental Action in Eastern Europe (Armonk, NY, M. E. Sharpe, 1993), p. 199. For a comparative exploration of environmental protest in late communist ECE see also Duncan Fisher, 'The Emergence of the Environmental Movement in Eastern Europe and Its Role in the Revolutions of 1989', in Barbara Jancar-Webster (ed.), Environmental Action in Eastern Europe (Armonk, NY, M. E. Sharpe, 1993), pp. 89-113.
13. Bernard Wheaton & Zdenek Kavan, The Velvet Revolution: Czechoslovakia, 1988-1991 (Boulder, Westview, 1992), p. 29.
14. Jancar-Webster, p. 193.
15. Wheaton & Kavan, p. 220; Moldan et al., p. 7.
16. Kabala, pp. 12-13. A Federal Environment Commission was also created and functioned until the dissolution of the country at the end of 1992. However, it only had the power to draft general 'framework' legislation; legislation in specific policy areas and all powers of implementation and enforcement were situated at the republic level (Kabala, p. 13).
17. Tadeusz Nowakowicz, 'MZP nebo MZP(V)?', Respekt, 4 April 1990.
18. Lubos Nondek, 'Pdoby zelene politiky', Respekt, 7 October 1991.
19. Moldan et al. is an example of one of the new Environment Ministry publications.
20. Jarmila Johnova, 'Na jedne lodi', Respekt, 20 June 1990.
21. Fisher, p. 99.
22. Erich G. Frankland, 'Green Revolutions?: the role of green parties in Eastern Europe's transition, 1989-1994', East European Quarterly, 24, 3, 1995, p. 329.
23. Ibid., p. 330.
24. 'Kazdy mohl udelat vie', Respekt, 5 December 1990.
25. Wheaton & Kavan, p. 132. Frankland analyses the subsuming of the 'green' vote under the rubric of broad umbrella parties in ECE in terms of the concept of Themenklau' ('issue theft'), which suggests that the popularity of an issue such as the environment may lead parties not deeply concerned with the issue to 'steal' it from an issue-oriented party. However, the use of this concept seems somewhat misplaced in the ECE context if we maintain that the environmental issue was itself part and parcel of wider anti-communist opposition, and in no way 'belonged' to any pre-existing environmental party.
26. See Barbara Jancar-Webster, 'Environmental Movement and Social Change in the Transition Countries', Environmental Politics, 7, 1, 1998, pp. 69-91.
27. Moldan et al., p. 7; Pavel Mandys, 'Nezajem', Respekt, 8 April 1991.
28. Ivan Lamper, 'Nemame pravo poskozovat zemi', Respekt, 4 January 1993.
29. Petr Holub, 'Nasi lide uz jsou apaticti', Respekt, 9 March 1997.
30. Jancar-Webster, 'The East European', p. 206.
31. Adam Fagin, 'Environment and Transition in the Czech Republic', Environmental Politics, 3, 3, 1994, p. 490.
32. Between 1992 and 1997 the Environment Ministry did actively seek input from activist groups on at least one important piece of proposed reform legislation, a new ozone protection law. However, even in this case the suggestions of groups such as Hnuti Duha (Rainbow Movement) were eventually rejected when the law went before Parliament in 1995 (Hana Capova, 'Prvni zakon ministra Bendy', Respekt, 13 March 1995).
33. Adam Fagin & Petr Jehlicka, 'Sustainable Development in the Czech Republic: A Doomed Process?', Environmental Politics, 7, 1, 1998, pp. 113-128.
34. Ibid.
35. See for example Vaclav Klaus, 'Problematika znecisteni zivotniho prostredi', Lidove Noviny, 14 February 1994.
36. Bedrich Moldan, 'Mic v hristi', Respekt, 27 December 1993.
37. Petr Pavlinek, Economic Restructuring and Local Environmental Management in the Czech Republic (Lewiston, NY, The Edwin Mellen Press, 1997), p. 344.
38. See Klarer & Francis for comparative treatment.
39. Brian Slocock, 'The Paradoxes of Environmental Policy in Eastern Europe: The Dynamics of Policy-Making in the Czech Republic', Environmental Politics, 5, 3, 1996, p. 502.
40. Richard Andrews, 'Environmental Policy in the Czech and Slovak Republic', in Anna Vari & Pal Tamas (eds), Environmental and Democratic Transition: Policy and Politics in Central and Eastern Europe (Dordrecht, Kluwer, 1993), p. 34. Three of the eight pieces of legislation were passed at the Federal level (Pavlinek, p. 107), where the Czech and Slovak Environment Ministries worked together with the Federal Environment Commission, and also enjoyed strong political support. After the division of the country at the beginning of 1993 the provisions of the federal legislation were transferred to the Czech Republic level.
41. Ladislav Holy, The Little Czech and the Great Czech Nation (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1996), p. 203.
42. Susan Baker & Petr Jehlicka, 'Dilemmas of Transition: The Environment, Democracy and Economic Reform in East Central Europe - An Introduction', Environmental Politics, 7, 1, 1998, p. 19.
43. Moldan cited in 'Kazdy mohl udelat vie'.
44. Fagin, p. 487.
45. Nondek.
46. Bernd Baumgartl, 'West Provides No New Aid to Clean Up Eastern Europe', RFE/RL Research Report, 16 July 1993.
47. Klarer & Francis, p. 51; Fagin & Jehlicka.
48. Hana Capova, 'Dalsi kolo v ekologickem ringu', Respekt, 29 August 1994.
49. The heterogeneity of opinion on environmental issues within the ODS is illustrated by the fact that even a veteran environmentalist such as Bedrich Moldan was a member of the ODS for some time in 1993 (Marek Salek, 'Srocovani ekologu', Respekt, 13 December 1993). See Slocock for a more detailed discussion of Klaus' views on environmental policy.
50. 'Deti Zeme proti freonum', Respekt, 30 November 1992.
51. Richard Stencl, 'Novy rebel v ceske vlade', Respekt, 28 March 1994.
52. Slocock, p. 512.
53. Holub.
54. Slocock, p. 507.
55. Capova, 'Dalsi Kolo'.
56. Holub.
57. Ministry of the Environment of the Czech Republic, Informace o stavu zivotniho prostredi (http://www.env.cz/, 1998).
58. Of course, the distinction between these two approaches in not entirely clear-cut. For example, tight emissions controls may raise costs and thus induce producers or consumers to alter resource use patterns. However, the distinction remains valid insofar as the direct target of the policy instrument is concerned.
59. The original legislation had Czech Republic and federal components, but these were combined when Czechoslovakia split into two states.
60. Slocock, p. 514.
61. Jakub Kaspar, 'Co dycha Praha?' EkoList, 4 July 1997; Pavel Baroch, 'Vsechny uhelne elektrarny a chemicky musi do konce roku odsirit sve provozy', Mlada Fronta Dnes, 2 January 1998. In comparison, for example, Slocock (p. 514) observes that the EU has given Spain until 2005 to implement similar standards in its industrial plants.
62. Jakub Kaspar, 'Co dycha Praha?' EkoList, 4 July 1997; Pavel Baroch, 'Vsechny uhelne elektrarny a chemicky musi do konce roku odsirit sve provozy', Mlada Fronta Dnes, 2 January 1998. In comparison, for example, Slocock (p. 514) observes that the EU has given Spain until 2005 to implement similar standards in its industrial plants.
63. Andrews, p. 30; Fagin, p. 486.
64. Hana Capova, 'Zhluboka dychat', Respekt, 11 January 1999.
65. Slocock, pp. 515-516.
66. Andrews, p. 33; Pavlinek, p. 312.
67. Pavlinek, pp. 294-296.
68. Andrews, p. 30; Jan Machacek, 'Nedychat zhluboka', Respekt, 12 May 1991.
69. Tomas Horejsi, 'Kontrola vyfukovych plynu aut stale dobrovolna', Respekt, 2 August 1993.
70. Capova, 'Zhluboka dychat'.
71. Pavlinek, p. 312; Capova, 'Zhluboka dychat'.
72. Baroch.
73. Marek Salek, 'Zeleny bysnys', Respekt, 31 January 1994; Slocock, p. 517.
74. In 1994 CEZ made aprofit of Kc20 billion ($850 million), making it the most profitable enterprise in all of ECE (Salek 1995).
75. Slocock, p. 516.
76. Ministry of the Environment of the Czech Republic, 'Legislativa' (http://www.env.cz, 2000).
77. John Pucher, 'Zlepsovani mestske hromadne dopravy pro zachranu nejkrasnejsiho mesta stredni Evropy', Metro, 15 April 1998.
78. Marek Svehla, 'Kudy do pekel?', Respekt, 10 September 1997.
79. Jaroslav Spurny, 'Smog pod kontrolou pocitace', Respekt, 18 October 1993; Jarmila Johnova, 'Autodoprava je hlavni pricinou smogu v Praze', Lidove Noviny, 18 December 1997.
80. Jaroslav Spurny, 'Smog pod kontrolou pocitace', Respekt, 18 October 1993; Jarmila Johnova, 'Autodoprava je hlavni pricinou smogu v Praze', Lidove Noviny, 18 December 1997.
81. A December 1993 survey suggested that a mere 16% of Czechs endorsed the principle of 'green' taxes (Bedrich Moldan, 'Mic v hristi', Respekt, 27 December 1993).
82. Hana Capova, 'Penize na lepsi vzuch', Respekt, 5 September 1994.
83. Marek Svehla, 'Palivo budoucnosti', Respekt, 19 October 1998.
84. Zaneta Horakova, 'Ctvrt miliardy na ekologicke topeni', Pravo, 6 February 1998; Marek Svehla, 'Maximalne deset miliard', Respekt, 23 February 1999.
85. Zaneta Horakova, 'Ctvrt miliardy na ekologicke topeni', Pravo, 6 February 1998; Marek Svehla, 'Maximalne deset miliard', Respekt, 23 February 1999.
86. Marek Svehla, 'Hrejte si a svitte', Respekt, 4 November 1996.
87. Ibid.
88. Marek Prazak, 'Tezba uhli navzdory predpokladum neklesa', Mlada Fronta Dnes, 24 November 1997.
89. Jiri Neustupa, 'Bude v CR uhlikova dan?', EkoList, 1 March 1998.
90. Marek Svehla, 'Automobilova demokracie', Respekt, 18 September 1995.
91. David Konecny, 'Mesto pripravilo pro vladu dokument o rozvoji dopravy', Mlada Fronta Dnes, 16 April 1998.
92. Cited in Marek Svehla, 'O celou pulhodinu rychleji', Respekt, 10 February 1997.
93. Fagin & Jehlicka, p. 116.
94. Prazak.
95. Pucher.
96. Ibid.
97. Praha: zivotni prostredi 1999 (Prague, IMIP, 1999), pp. 52-57.
98. Pavel Baroch, 'Automobilu v Praze pribyva, vzduch je prosycen zplodinami', Mlada fronta Dnes, 11 December 1997.
99. Marek Svehla, 'Klid, vsechno beru na sebe', Respekt, 10 August 1998; Czech Television News, June 2000.
100. Ministry of the Environment of the Czech Republic, 'Aproximacni Strategie pro oblast "zivotni prostredi"' (http://www.env.cz, 2000).
101. Ministry of the Environment of the Czech Republic, 'Zaverecna zprava o rozdeleni financnich prostredku na projekty obcanskych sdruzeni pro rok 2000' (http://www.env.cz, 2000).
102. Marek Svehla, 'Proti vsem skudcum prirody', Respekt, 30 November 1998.