ABSTRACT
The central inquiry of this chapter is the relationship between political liberalization and the rise and development of environmental movements. The selection of the eight cases (China, Kazakhstan, Indonesia, Japan, Mongolia, Singapore, South Korea, and Vietnam) is guided by both the call for broad coverage of Asia and the logic of comparative politics so that this research will be able to generate a level of theoretical discussion, in addition to empirically mapping out environmental movements in Asia.
In addition to outlining the main patterns of the environmental-political dual transformation, this research also discusses possible reasons for the initial synergy between political liberalization and environmental movements to fade away and the challenges of environmental protection for both young democracies and authoritarian regimes.
