Ecological modernization or subversion? The effect of europeanization on Eastern Europe

The pan-European conference at Czechoslovakia's Dobris Castle in 1991 was the beginning of an unusual era of Europeanization of environmental policy. Two contrasting hypotheses have been advocated regarding the effect of Europeanization on ecological modernization in Central and Eastern Europe. On one hand, proponents of the caterpillar hypothesis expect the transition process to have led toward ecological modernization. On the other hand, proponents of the capacity-building hypothesis posit an interdependence between ecological and political modernization. Even cursory analysis of environmental performance indicates that there has been much less ecological modernization in Eastern Europe than was expected 10 years ago. In fact, what might be termed ecological subversion, involving the dismantling of environmental institutions and entailing increased pollution per unit of gross domestic product, is the pattern in several countries, hence falsifying the caterpillar hypothesis. The subtle interplay between political and ecological modernization is evident but remains to be fully clarified.