Emergence and Development of Bulgaria's Environmental Movement

Abstract

An environmental movement emerged in Bulgaria in the late 1980s around which regime dissent coalesced. Success was achieved in bringing an end to the communist state, but environmental problems were not resolved. Environmental issues now must be tackled within a developing pluralistic political system and its new political elite and within a struggling market economy. As Tarrow suggests in his "cycles of protest" thesis, new repertoires of political action are available to the environmental movement along with new political opportunities for it to seize. This study of the Bulgarian environmental movement suggests that even when a social movement secures significant success, far from bringing an end to activity, the movement is likely tofind that there are unresolved and even new issues to address that must be pursued under significantly changed political, social, and economic conditions.