2012. évi 2. szám - Jura - Pécsi Tudományegyetem

114 Máté Julesz: Civil Society and Environmental Protectionbiological diversity and its components, includinggenetically modified organisms, and the interactionsamong these elements. The environmental elementsare objective values of the society as a whole.Due examination of Subparagraph (b) of thesame Paragraph reveals that this Subparagraph alsorelates to subjective environmental information,covering factors such as substances, energy, noiseand radiation, and activities or measures, includingadministrative measures, environmental agreements,policies, legislation, plans and programmes, affectingor likely to affect the elements of the environment,and cost-benefit and other economic analyses and assumptionsused in environmental decision-making.Subparagraph (c) of the same Paragraph again relatesto subjective environmental information: the state ofhuman health and safety, conditions of human life,cultural sites and built structures, inasmuch as theyare or may be affected by the state of the elementsof the environment or, through these elements, bythe factors, activities or measures referred to inSubparagraph (b).The environmental information featuring in Subparagraphs(b) and (c) may be essential for groups ofpeople or for individuals, whereas that in Subparagraph(a) is essential for all mankind. Civic controlover the state should not take subjective values forobjective ones, because civic control over the stateis not the same as standing up for the rights of onegroup of people. Nevertheless, subjective valuesmay sometimes appear of more importance thantheir objective counterparts. This can arise when asubjective value concerns the environmental rightsof economically and/or politically powerful citizens,such as business leaders, makers of public decisions,etc., so that the subjective value acquires national orglobal significance. This does not mean that it is essentialfor the whole of mankind. It is demonstratedonly that, in an extreme case, objective interests maybe passed over by subjects.5. Green Parties and Civic ControlThe activity of green parties, of course, is not civiccontrol. When a civil society organization becomes anactor on the legislative stage, it gives up its civic nature.Green parties tend to ally with social democraticparties, and sometimes with right-wing democrats,as has been seen in Germany and Austria, whereasthe green party in the Hungarian parliament is currentlynot inclined to ally with either social democratsor right-wing democrats.In most European countries, an opposition role isusually the first step adopted by a green party freshlyelected to parliament. The German and Austrianexamples illustrate that later, with a view to strengtheningboth politically and socially, green parties maychoose a partner with which to ally, from either theleft-wing, or the right-wing.In any analysis of the functioning of green parties,it must be borne in mind that a political party loses itscivic character when it becomes part of the legislativepolitical body, even if it expresses oppositional criticismof the parliamentary majority. Civic control inenvironmental matters is not a duty of oppositionalpolitical parties. Civic environmentalism could enterparliament without losing its civic attribute only ifcivil society, as it is, were represented in the parliament.The representation of civil society, if it evercomes true, is generally ill-proportioned.A number of draft proposals have dealt with therepresentation of civil society in European parliaments.In Hungary, a reform of the composition ofparliament is under way: civil society seems to bekept at some distance from professional politics.In fact, the exclusion of civic environmentalismfrom parliament and the admission of a green partyinstead might in the long run be socially more beneficial.Civic environmentalism can be both amorphousand organized. The representation of subjectivevalues is not a primary goal of parliamentary greenparties. Axiologically, a green subjective value mayconstitute an environmental value, but epistemologically,a green claim of a subject may acquire anormative form only if it is adopted by legislation.However, legislation does not tend to adopt subjectivevalues unless these are properly communicated.Civic environmentalism generally places the mainstress on the protection of objective environmentalvalues; this is the only way for smaller groups orethnic minorities to express their environmentalopinions.6. Environmental Injusticeand Civic ControlEnvironmental injustice usually appears as a minorityquestion. The opposing of ethnic minorities toa national majority has the effect of sharpening aconflict than resolving it. Environmental justice comprisespart of social justice. Society should preferablynot be divided into minority groups, though a certainmeasure of such division is unavoidable.When environmental justice concerns poor peopleliving in the neighbourhood of industrial plants, thestate often proves less sensitive than in the case ofethnic minorities living under similar conditions.JURA 2012/2.