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AbstractThe environmental movement is one of the most successful social movements in recent decades, garnering substantial public support throughout western Europe and the United States. Environmentalism is also considered a key "new social movement" (NSM), assumed to share fundamental characteristics with other NSMs such as the women's, antinuclear, and peace movements. Using the results of a 1990 cross‐national survey of western Europe and the United States, we examine three broad suppositions regarding public support for the environmental movement and other NSMs. We first examine the idea that the general public distinguishes between two branches of contemporary environmentalism—the more traditional one of nature conservation and the newer, broader one of general environmental protection—and find that the general publics in 18 nations make little distinction between them. We next examine the degree to which public support for environmental protection is related to support for other NSMs, and find a strong relationship between the two‐thereby validating a widely assumed but seldom‐tested tenet found in the NSM literature.Finally, we examine the presumed bases of support for environmental protection and other NSMs, particularly the notion that NSM supporters are drawn heavily from the "new class." We find that demographic variables, including membership in the new class, are poor predictors of support for the goals of NSMs in general and of support for environmentalism in particular.

A contribution to a forum (1997 [see abstracts of related articles]) on Steven R. Brechin & Willett Kempton's (1994 [see abstract 9504457]) contention that environmentalism is unexplained by postmaterialist values because it exists in countries insufficiently developed to be characterized by a shift toward such values. Brechin & Kempton's conclusion & use of national-level data are defended on the grounds that it is a technique often used to argue in favor of the postmaterialism thesis. A reanalysis of the data used by both Brechin & Kempton & their detractors concludes that Ronald Inglehart's (1990) value change theory of postmaterialism explains several social phenomena, but not the distribution of environmental concern. 1 Table, 20 References. E. Blackwell

Compares public support for the environmental movement, anti-nuclear power movement, women's movement, human rights movement, and the animal rights movement; data from a 1990 Gallup poll.

Examines public approval of environmental protection relative to approval of the goals of other major new social movements -- antinuclear power, nuclear disarmament, women's, human rights, & animal rights movements -- in Western Europe & the US. The data come from a 1990 lifestyles & attitudes survey conducted by Gallup for Reader's Digest, based on nationally representative samples in the US & 17 European nations (total N = 12,230). Results show higher public approval for environmental protection than for the goals of other new social movements. 4 Tables, 20 References. Adapted from the source document.