ABSTRACT
The younger and better educated sections of society became concerned with citizen participation and self-determination, minority rights, women's rights, the environment, international peace, atomic energy and Third World politics. The Eastern movements were less concerned with the environment, while in the West the ecologically oriented Greens were probably the most powerful and best publicized of the new social movements. The major forces for environmental protection in Central and Eastern Europe are still international organizations like the World Wildlife Fund, Western governments, and the European Commission, which are concerned about pollution, the ozone layer, and badly maintained nuclear power stations. The terms materialism and postmaterialism were developed by the United States political scientist Ronald Inglehart. Widespread public awareness of environmental deterioration emerged at the end of the 1960s in all advanced industrialized countries. The Regional Environmental Centre in Budapest is very active, and is run by one of the most prominent environmental dissidents of the late communist period.
