The External Growth Conditions Of Environmental Movements In China: A State-society Perspective

After the reform in economic field, China has experienced sustainedrapid development. However, we also pay for the rapid growth of theeconomy a high environmental cost. With the rapid development ofeconomic, environmental pollution has become increasingly serious inour country, and all kinds of environmental disputes, environmentalprotests are growing. As a form of social movements, scholars studyenvironmental movements from various angles. From the state-societyrelationship perspective, the paper argues that the changes on therelationship of the state and the society create external conditions for therise and development of the environmental movements in China. Basedon the state-society model and two variables---the nature of the state andthe nature of the society, this paper discusses what changes on theevolving state-society relationship provides external conditions for therise and development of the environmental movements in detail. On theone hand, the changes on the state lead to the openness of the politicalsystem and the fragmented administrative system, and these provide thepolitical opportunity for the environmental movements; on the other hand,the political transformation leads to the emergence of NGOs whichprovide the organizational recourses and the openness of the media whichis good for the spread of the news and issue construction. Finally, through the analysis of the campaign against the Nu River dam project, this paperconfirms the view presented earlier.