The Politics of Environmental Groups in Portugal

View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Cadmus, EUI Research Repository EUROPEAN UNIVERSITY INSTITUTE Department of Political and Social Sciences THE POLITICS OF ENVIRONMENTAL GROUPS IN PORTUGAL A Case Study on Institutional Contexts and Communication Processes of Environmental Collective Action by J. Gil Nave Thesis submitted for assesment with a view to obtaining the Degree of Doctor of the European University Institute Florence, January 2000 EUROPEAN UNIVERSITY INSTITUTE Department of Political and Social Sciences THE POLITICS OF ENVIRONMENTAL GROUPS IN PORTUGAL A Case Study on Institutional Contexts and Communication Processes of Environmental of Environmental Collective Action by J. Gil Nave Thesis submitted for assesment with a view to obtaining the Degree of Doctor of the European University Institute Examining jury: Prof. Christian Joppke Prof. João Ferreira de Almeida Prof. Klaus Eder Prof. Maria Kousis Florence, January 2000 Summary This thesis aims at contributing to reverse a widespread version of environmental movement politics in «late comer»/«post authoritarian» democracy cases, which too quickly identify the scarcity of mass protest on environmental issues and of ‘green’ party politics as a deficit of social movement. An historical appraisal of the environmental movement and of political opportunities in Portugal seems to point to particular mobilization structures and patterns of action and organization, which are effected by features of the political system and political culture. These features make collective action to be highly dependent on conventional party politcs and on state action, leaving no consistent institutional devices for autonomous participation of civil society groups. Policy-making designs display an apparent deficit of «politics of interests» and the state emerges as a pivotal actor of modernization. Environmental collective action tends to fall under the aureola of the state for resources and participation. By giving privilege to discourse conflicting in the public sphere instead of direct action and political mobilization, environmental movement organizations get to appear as autonomous «cultural pressure groups». The period of analysis covers the advent of democracy in the mid 1970s and the striving for advanced patterns of modernization after the adhesion to EEC/EU in the mid 1980s. A «political process» model approach allows to specify the political opportunity structure which determines the patterns of action and organization of environmental movement politics in Portugal. However, a «political communication» model approach is further developed to account for institutional contexts and communication processes of environmental collective action, and for political and cultural effects of «discourse conflicting» in the public sphere of environmental politics. The rise and institutionalization of environmentalism in Portugal is, thus, analysed as a broad «social communication» and «social learning» process where political and institutional arrangements meet cultural processes of issue framing with regard to ecology, development, modernization, and democracy. Contents i THE POLITICS OF ENVIRONMENTAL GROUPS IN PORTUGAL - A Case Study on Institutional Contexts and Communication Processes of Environmental Collective Action CONTENTS Introduction 1 PART I Collective Action, Opportunity Structures, and Public Space of Environmental Politics in a «Late Comer» Advanced Society Polity 5 Chapter 1.- Environmental protest and movement in a «late comer» advanced society polity: Analytic model and hypotheses for a «single nation case-study» 6 1.1. Opportunity structure, political process, and public space 6 1.2. Mobilization processes and the role of the media in making policy agendas 16 1.3. Analytical model and hypotheses 22 1.4. Data, methodological problems, and research strategy 36 Chapter 2. Contextual Political Factors of the emergence of Environmental Movement Politics in Portugal 42 2.1. Introduction 42 2.2. «Casing» environmental protest and «new» movement politics in a «late comer»/ «post-authoritarian» advanced society democracy 43 2.3. Political system and political culture 53 2.4. Party system and civil society 62 2.5. The institutional design of environmental policy-making 69 2.6. Environmental policy and development 75 PART II The Rise of Environmentalism in Portugal: The Politics of Environmental Protest and Issues on the Eve of the EEC Adhesion 85 Chapter 3.- Environmental Politics and Issues on the Eve of the EEC Adhesion 86 3.1. Introduction 86 3.2. The nuclear energy issue and the emerging of an anti-nuclear expertise opposition 87 3.3. The National Energy Provision Plan and the growing of anti-nuclearism in public opinion 96 3.4. The 'green' monarchists and the environmental sector portfolio in the government of the republic 104 3.5. The 'greening' of mainstream parties and environmental issues on the eve of the EEC adhesion 110 ii Contents Chapter 4.- The Politics of Environmental Groups (I) - First Period (1974-85) 118 4.1. The conservationist tradition 118 4.2. Pioneering 'radical' political ecology cultures 121 4.3. Mobilizing on the nuclear power issue 125 4.4. The emergence of local grass roots environmental protest and the historical and cultural heritage defence movement 137 4.5. The 'peak organization' versus 'green party' debate: 'Green' parties, what for? 145 Conclusion of Part II 159 PART III Association Actors, Institutional Contexts, and Communication Processes of Environmental Issues in Portugal: The Institutionalization of Environmental Politics 164 Chapter 5.- Environmental Politics and Issues after the EEC Adhesion: The Late 1980s 165 5.1. Developing an Environmental Policy Sector 165 5.2. A nuclear waste disposal «in the backyard» 174 5.3. Environmental protest and grass roots mobilization: «Under the eucalyptus tree» 177 Chapter 6.- Environmental Politics and Protests in the Early 1990s 185 6.1. Giving the environmental policy sector a ministry status 185 6.2. The expanding political grounds of environmental protest 191 6.3. The closure of environmental policy making as an «expertise» domain 197 6.4. Framing environmental issues as a «politics of modernization» affair 202 6.5. The Nimby wave of the early 1990s 210 Chapter 7.- The Politics of Environmental Groups (II) - Second Period (1986-1995) 217 7.1. Movement associations and the environmental policy domain 217 7.2. The fading of green party politics 226 7.3. Phenomenology and organizational resources of environmental groups 231 7.4. Associations' communication strategy in the public sphere of environmental politics 243 Conclusion of Part III 253 Contents iii PART IV – Conclusion Chapter 8.- Collective Actors, Public Space, and Ecological Communication in a «Late Comer» Advanced Society Polity: The Case of Environmental Politics in Portugal 258 8.1. Introduction 258 8.2. The emergence of the environmental movement in Portugal 258 8.3. Association actors and issues in the public sphere of environmental politics 268 8.4. The public sphere of environmental politics: political and cultural effects 277 8.5. Political opportunity structure, public sphere, and ecological communication in a «late comer» advanced society polity 283 8.6. Post-scriptum on prospects for further research on environmental protest in Portugal: Who are the challengers now? 293 Bibliography 302 Introduction The fact that most of the European research on «new» social movements has come from more advanced capitalist democracies of Northern Europe -- Germany, in particular -- does not necessarily prove that «new» movements have been either quantitatively or qualitatively more important than in Southern European countries. This could simply be due to the fact that Southern researchers were too occupied with their own countries' regional problems and party systems. This problem was initially raised by Klandermans and Tarrow (1988: 16-7) as a challenging point to one of the most basic assumptions of the European Tradition of «New» Social Movement Studies, which stresses a causal link between advanced industrialism and «new» social movements. The authors suggested it might be primarily the conditions of national politics, that is, of the «political opportunity structure», and not factors internal to social movements that determined divergent "careers" of movements within different national settings. The best way to demonstrate the «newness» of contemporary social movements, they concluded, is to compare similar movements in different countries ( ibid. ). After they wrote this, nation case comparison was made a decisive step of social movement research. (e.g. McAdam et al. 1996). This thesis aims at discussing the upsurge and institutionalization of environmentalism as a contemporary social movement in Portugal. Strictly speaking, my study does not bear upon comparative research, but aims to add something to social movement research by deeply studying a nation case that has been left aside. The analysis period begins with the advent of democracy and the fall of the colonial empire in the mid 1970s, and covers the striving for a successful adhesion to EC/EU from the mid 1980s onwards. Thus, the analysis emphasizes Portuguese polity at a turning point of the national identity project. Democratic reform, development, modernization, and living standards commonly found in advanced capitalism appear as first rank mobilization issues of political action in the period. We are dealing with a case from

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