Green Party

12 Key excerpts on "Green Party"

• 

  eBook - PDF

  Green Politics

  Dictatorship or Democracy?

  • J. Radcliffe, Kenneth A. Loparo, Jo Campling(Authors)
  • 2000(Publication Date)
  • Palgrave Macmillan

    (Publisher)

  9 The Green Party and Party Politics in the UK 163 The purpose of this chapter and the next is to examine the ideology and the methods of a number of organizations who may be said to comprise part of a community or movement whose concern is centred upon environmental issues. The material was gathered between 1978 and 1998, and includes publications, interviews with members and items published on the Internet. The views expressed, except where these come from pamphlets and other publications, are the personal views of those interviewed. The Green Party The idea of establishing an ecological or Green Party resulted in a seri- ous debate over tactics. In 1978 there were three groups associated with the mainstream political parties, the Liberal Ecology Group (LEG), the Conservative Ecology Group (CEG), and the Socialist Environment and Resources Association (SERA). These organizations acted as internal pressure groups and consultative bodies to the mainstream parties. The groups affiliated to parties felt that better results could be gained by developing ecological ideas within already established parties with their large membership and popular vote. Jonathan Porritt, who in the late 1970s was the Ecology Party’s Vice-Chairman, dismissed such a view as for him ecology was very much an alternative ideology cover- ing all aspects of the political, social and economic scene. This being so he felt that there was a need to transcend traditional left/right politics, as these were becoming increasingly anachronistic. A major criticism of the other groups was that their position inevitably led to compromise. However, he saw them having a role in propagating ecological ideas within the parties in order to ameliorate the effects of their traditional J. Radcliffe, Green Politics © James Radcliffe 2000

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book
• 

  eBook - ePub

  No-Nonsense Guide to Green Politics

  • Derek Wall(Author)
  • 2010(Publication Date)
  • Between the Lines

    (Publisher)

  Chapter 1

  Global green politics

  The term ‘green politics’ was once synonymous with the German Greens, who have participated in governments for much of the last three decades. But Green parties have now gone global – from Kenya to Mongolia, Taiwan to Brazil. And green political activity encompasses non-electoral campaigns and direct-action techniques the world over.

  In 1983, 28 members of the German Green Party were elected to the West German parliament. Dressed informally in jeans, some of them brought in plants to place on their desks. Their colorful arrival contrasted with the suited members from the traditional parties.

  Their success marked the first entry into a national parliament of a group of greens. The German Greens were elected in 1983 on a platform with four key elements: ecology, social justice, peace and grassroots democracy.

  Green parties were born in the early 1970s, grew in the 1980s and green politics is now a global phenomenon. Green politics is first and foremost the politics of ecology; a campaign to preserve the planet from corporate greed, so we can act as good ancestors to future generations. However, green politics involves more than environmental concern.

  Ecology may be the first pillar of green politics but it is not the only one. Andrew Dobson, an English Green Party member and academic, has argued that green politics is a distinct political ideology. While much ink has been spilt defining the term ‘ideology’, Dobson argues that it is a set of political ideas rather than a single idea, even one as powerful as concern for the environment. He argues that a political ideology provides a map of reality, which helps to show its adherents how to understand the world. He also believes that ideologies demand the transformation of society. He uses the term ‘ecologism’ to distinguish green politics from simple ‘environmentalism’.

  The second pillar of green politics – social justice – is vital. Greens argue that environmental protection should not come at the expense of the poor or lead to inequality. This social justice element places greens on the left of the political spectrum. Greens argue, however, that the right-left spectrum is not the only dimension of politics, not least because there are many political parties that are committed to social justice but which fail to protect nature.

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book
• 

  eBook - ePub

  Environment and Politics

  • Timothy Doyle, Doug McEachern, Sherilyn MacGregor(Authors)
  • 2015(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  The first green parties were formed in New Zealand and Tasmania in the early 1970s (Rainbow 1992). Over the past 40 years, thousands of Green Party candidates have been elected to offices at local, state/provincial, national/federal and international levels. The greens have had moderate success in the European parliament and they were the first to form an EU-wide political party. Since its founding in 2001, the Global Greens international network has operated to promote a Global Green Charter, deepen communication among green parties in 90 countries, and to facilitate action on global environmental matters (Global Greens 2006). In 2008, it adopted ‘21 Commitments for the 21st Century’ and in 2010 established the leadership role of Global Greens Secretariat (see Box 5.2). Green parties share a commitment to a common set of principles, known as the ‘ four pillars ’. They may be expressed in slightly different ways in different national contexts and languages, but the four traditionally listed (going back to the 1980s) principles are ecological wisdom, social justice, participatory democracy and non-violence. Some green parties have more recently added ‘respect for diversity’ and ‘sustainability’ as guiding values. In stark contrast to most traditional political parties, greens have tended to reject the practice of having one leader and many followers and operate through consensus decision-making processes. While some parties have recently moved to having leadership elections, for a long time greens had rotating spokespeople instead of a single leader. Even now, there is always a commitment to gender equality. The Green Party of England and Wales (GPEW), for example, has a policy that if the elected leader is a woman then the deputy leader must be a man (and vice versa). Note that this practice puts green parties ahead of ENGOs on the criteria of making deep political change

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book
• 

  eBook - PDF

  Environmental Politics

  The Age of Climate Change

  • Robert Garner, Lyn Jaggard(Authors)
  • 2011(Publication Date)
  • Red Globe Press

    (Publisher)

  In the case of both parties, though, the focus during elections has been on economic growth, not surprising given the Conservative’s links with business interests and Labour’s with the trade unions. Although it is difficult to demonstrate conclusively, it is surely the case that the ideological disposition of mainstream political parties, and the individuals within them, plays a relatively small part in an explanation of the nature of environmental policy and politics. External influences – most notably, the strength of public opinion as well as the existence of treaty obligations – would seem to be more important. Thus, the extensive greening of political parties in Scandinavia and in Germany can be best explained by the electoral saliency of the environment, with the main parties in the latter having to deal with the rise of an electorally successful Green Party, itself partly a product of the state of public opinion. Green Parties and Movements 163 Green political parties Green parties now exist in many countries. The Values Party, formed in New Zealand in 1972, was the first Green Party in the world, and the forerunner of the British Green Party was established, as the People Party, a year later to become the first of its kind in Europe (Rainbow, 1992). Some Green parties have achieved more than others, in terms of votes and seats won and in terms of participation in government. In national elec-tions, for instance, only four Green parties in Europe – in Austria, Finland, Germany and Luxembourg – regularly receive 8 per cent or more of the vote in national elections (Carter, 2007: 89). In a number of countries, Greens have also occupied governmental posts. Most notable has been the German Green Party which secured increasing levels of support in the 1980s.

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book
• 

  eBook - ePub

  Globalisation, Environment and Social Justice

  Perspectives, Issues and Concerns

  • Manish Verma, Manish K. Verma, Manish Verma, Manish K. Verma(Authors)
  • 2018(Publication Date)
  • Routledge India

    (Publisher)

  12

  With such philosophy at its core, the first Green parties were founded during the early 1970s. The Values Party of New Zealand was the world’s first countrywide Green Party to contest parliamentary seats nationally in 1972. In 1973 Europe’s first Green Party, the UK’s Ecology Party, was established. The German Green Party has been an example of electoral success as one of the most significant parties winning 27 seats in the Bundestag in the 1983 federal elections in Germany. There have been more than 80 parties the world over constituted around the ideology of the Greens. The last two decades have seen the emergence of global greens.13 The Charter of the Greens is the foundational document. It draws upon the charters and constitutions of Green parties around the world, as well as some ideas from the Earth Charter and from the global gathering of Greens at Rio in 1992 (Global Greens Charter. 2012). Many European countries also developed ‘Green’ parties which constitute a good percentage of the total number of seats in the European parliament. The European Greens have always been committed to basic tenets of Green politics, such as environmental responsibility, individual freedom, inclusive democracy, diversity, social justice, gender equality, global sustainable development, and non-violence (European Union, http://europeangreens.eu , 2015). In the 1970s and 1980s the European Greens were generally sceptical of European political and economic integration, which was seen as contrary to environmental and social interests. In its 1984 program, the European Greens advocated the formation of an alternative Europe, which would be neutral and decentralised (Mol, A.P.J., Lauber, V. and Liefferink, J. 2000). In 1989, some member parties adopted a more parliamentary course and became more supportive of European integration. The program advocates the democratisation of Europe’s institutions. In their 1994 program, the Greens abandoned their principled opposition of European integration and began to propose pragmatic alternatives for the European Union’s policies and institutions.14

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book
• 

  eBook - PDF

  The Political Ideology of Green Parties

  From the Politics of Nature to Redefining the Nature of Politics

  • G. Talshir(Author)
  • 2002(Publication Date)
  • Palgrave Macmillan

    (Publisher)

  ‘Green politics provide each of us with the challenge.’ 79 Here, the opening of the Age of Understanding manifesto relies on the dominant 222 The British Green Party discourse – the belief that the individual is at the centre of everything, and that life is the pursuit of individual interest and challenge. This is compati- ble with the Green call for ‘empowering each individual’, 80 although it is clear that the individual alone cannot alter what is happening to natural resources or cure pollution. The challenge is pressing: ‘It’s a future we can still change – but we need to start now. Green politics are today’s politics, as well as tomorrow’s.’ 81 Notice it is presented in terms of a challenge – not as a doomed crisis. The second way to alleviate helplessness in the face of the multination- als, the remote-control government and the hopeless future, is to provide a new sense of belonging. This is achieved by using themes and ideas that sound familiar and comforting to the Christian ear, playing music that strikes a chord in the Christian believer’s heart, providing a sense of the lost community for the scattered flock, a spiritual community, offering a new way in harmony with the rest of creation. The tone is almost religious, with a sense that converts to the ‘righteous’ cause being sought: we are part of the web of life, part of creation, we only have to look inside ourselves to see what is the right path to follow. (Green) policies – all of them – acknowledge the vital importance of our whole environment. That environment – its health, its safety, its wholeness – affect our lives, our politics, and our future, and whenever we damage the environment, we damage ourselves. Like the other forms of life, we depend for our survival and well-being upon a fragile network of physical, social and spiritual links with the rest of creation. Green politics is an acknowledgement of the complexity of that web of life.

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book
• 

  eBook - PDF

  The Politics of the Environment

  Ideas, Activism, Policy

  • Neil Carter(Author)
  • 2018(Publication Date)
  • Cambridge University Press

    (Publisher)

  Two obvious criteria are that the name of almost every party that might qualify as a family member contains the word ‘green’ or a variation on ‘ecologist’ (one exception being the Hungarian ‘Politics Can Be Different’) and that most parties belong to transnational federations such as the ‘Global Greens’ or ‘European Green Party’, which share common aims and principles. Further scrutiny of the policy and ideology of individual green parties reveals considerable common ground that stretches far wider than a shared concern for the environment. Beyond their commitment to radical ecological think- ing, green parties, especially those with NSM origins, have always been determined not to be typecast as a single-issue party. Most parties originally modelled their programmes around the four pillars of the German Greens (see Box 3.3), expanding the core ideas of grassroots democracy, social justice and non-violence to embrace a range of liberal positions on social issues such as immigration, women’s rights, and lifestyle choices; support pacifist for- eign policies; and adopt left-wing positions on many core economic issues. Convergence between European green parties has been enhanced by the formation of a European Green Party that contests elections to the European Parliament on a common platform. Those parties initially opposed to EU Green Parties 109 membership, as in Sweden, or critical of deeper European integration, as in the UK and Ireland, have become (critical) supporters of the EU. One com- parative study of Green Party manifestos and expert survey data found that green programmes continue to prioritise environmental protection, but that they have developed a broader left-wing agenda combining radical libertar- ian positions with more traditional ‘socialist’ concerns such as expanding the welfare state and the education sector (Carter 2013).

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book
• 

  eBook - ePub

  Green Parties in Europe

  • Emilie van Haute(Author)
  • 2016(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  Müller-Rommel and Poguntke, 1989 ). Furthermore, the specific influences on Green parties, considered immediately above, are not new. Green parties across Europe have always been partially divided by their differing levels of integration into their national political systems. Their origins have tended to be similar, but they have never been precisely the same in any two cases. In addition, of course, Greens have been exposed to the pressures of distinct national political cultures from their foundation. Indeed, to some extent, it can be said that each Green Party has grown out of its own particular nation-state, even as it has argued against the inadequacies of a solely national politics in the face of contemporary environmental and social crises. Party family approaches to ideological classification have always had to consider such factors and to make allowances for them.

  However, regarding the distinctiveness of Green Party ideology, the last 30 years have taken their toll. The thematic analysis above has shown that while all the parties advocate more direct forms of democratic participation, the state is tacitly accepted as the principal lever of social change, as is reflected in the texts as well as in the primarily electoral strategy of most Green parties. While the Greens under study here have a partially radical view of nature, they compromise and understand the environmental partly in utilitarian terms, even if they do so primarily to attract more votes. Their egalitarianism is still very much in view, but the parties do not overall approach discrimination against women and migrants in a radically systemic fashion. Finally, they say little of their opposition to economic growth, and they can scarcely be thought of as pacifist, often adopting positions compatible with ‘liberal humanitarianism’, even if the parties remain on the sceptical edge of this philosophy of military activity.

  In sum, Green parties have lost some of their radical edge. The aggregate Green Party ideology discovered in the analysis above has partially shifted away from the historical model of new politics, and one can no longer easily speak of them as ‘antiparty’ parties, neither in the organisational nor the ideological sense. This is very likely so because over a period of 30 years they all, including the more marginal amongst them, have become relatively established institutions seeking national political influence. All Green parties have undergone a greater or lesser degree of integration within the existing party system. Herein lies a potential challenge for future attempts to classify party families by ideology. If even the newest challenger group within European party systems has lost some of its ideological distinctiveness, and if this process of incorporation into the political mainstream continues, then this suggests that we must be prepared to adopt a more subtle approach than in the past. We must acknowledge that, in general, the gaps between party family ideologies are becoming less substantial than in past years.

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book
• 

  eBook - ePub

  The Evolution of Green Politics

  Development and Change Within European Green Parties

  • Jon Burchell(Author)
  • 2014(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  11 At the heart of all these classifications, however, lies what Young described as ‘the great divide’ (Young, 1992, p14). The basis of this ‘divide’ rests with the assumption that authentic or ‘true’ Green politics is understood as ‘deep’ and must be based upon ecocentric motivations. All other Green activity, by definition, is classed as ‘shallow’ (Barry, 1994, p370).

  GREEN PARTIES AS A ‘NEW ’ FORM OF POLITICAL CHALLENGE

  The ideological roots of the European Green parties have thus been closely related to both the actions and development of a new form of social movement protest since the 1960s, and the emergence of an ecological critique of modern industrial society, which highlights the environmental dangers posed by continuous growth. Both dimensions are part of a process resulting in a ‘new’ form of political activism. Social movement literature highlights a challenge to traditional, established political channels which involves not only the emergence of new issues and issue priorities, but also encompasses a new style of social protest based upon greater participation and alternative forms of organization and action. Ecologism, too, represents a radical challenge to the established principles and priorities of modern industrial society: one in which the need to change our relationship with nature results in a significant alteration in societal values and concerns.

  Green parties have been identified as an emerging party political vehicle for many of these ideals and concepts. As such, analytical approaches to the study of Green parties have looked to both Green political theory and new social movement research for analytical tools. It is no surprise, therefore, to find that many of the ideas and concepts highlighted above are reflected in this analysis — both in terms of the central ideological commitments of these parties and the nature and style of party activism and organization.

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book
• 

  eBook - ePub

  The Green Movement in West Germany (RLE: German Politics)

  • Elim Papadakis(Author)
  • 2014(Publication Date)
  • Taylor & Francis

    (Publisher)

  Chapter Eight The Green Party

  This chapter examines the historic events surrounding the formation of a national Green Party which occurred after the wave of protest against nuclear power stations. These events provide an opportunity to assess the manner in which a social movement searches for new structures to ensure the continuity of its aims. In the Green and Alternative parties heterogeneous groups in the population that had campaigned at a local level sought to guarantee the continuity and success of the movement. The appearance of homogeneity at a local level and the absence of more central organisations to further their protest, influenced many activists to try and form a national Green Party. In addition, the formation of a party appealed to supporters of the SPD who were disappointed with the policies of the Social-Liberal Government and who sought to introduce a greater level of participation through party-political activity and not only through loosely-structured social movement organisations.

  Once the Green Party had been formed, traditional political divisions between left- and right-wing groups led to a series of debates and controversies from which there emerged policies of a predominantly left-wing complexion. None the less, there developed a conflict between those who were 'fundamentally' concerned about the realisation of the aims and ideas expressed by the Green Movement and those who adopted a more pragmatic, radical approach to the solution of various problems and towards the existing structures. This meant that the Green Party did not assume the role of a central organisation which represented the entire Green Movement. Other umbrella organisations and the alternative press, notably the Taz

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book
• 

  eBook - ePub

  Ideas and Actions in the Green Movement

  • Brian Doherty(Author)
  • 2005(Publication Date)
  • Taylor & Francis

    (Publisher)

  Each time after such disputes the green parties have recovered and while many of the traditional strategic issues remain divisive, the disputes have become much less intense. In part, this is due to a learning process. The intensity of strategic disputes reflected the period of party formation and development, when the apparent urgency of making a major breakthrough raised the stakes of every decision about the party’s future. It is perhaps depressing to point out that the problems are no less urgent, but that the greens have reduced their expectations. However, green parties are perhaps less central to the green project than they appeared in the 1980s. Then they were the ideological standard bearers for a broad new politics and it was hoped that their radicalism might infuse the left as a whole with new politics. Although this hope has not gone, particularly in countries such as France, where there is stronger resistance to neo-liberalism on the left, it now seems to be only one part of a much more multifarious green project, rather than its main plank.

  In the late 1990s the major influence on the development of the green parties was the entry of greens into national government in five western European states. Accepting a role in government was consistent with the strategic evolution analysed above, but for some this was the end of the greens as a party of the green movement. To assess whether this is the case it is necessary to examine the evidence from the greens’ experience in government to date.

  Greens in government

  The first greens to enter a national government were the Finns in 1995, gaining the environmental ministry. The greens increased their vote and re-entered government in 1999 as part of a broad coalition of social democrats, conservatives and other parties. In Italy the greens were part of the Olive Tree coalition government led by the (ex-Communist) Party of the Democratic Left from 1996–2001; and in France, the greens entered government in 1997 gaining the environment ministry in the plural left coalition of the PS, Communists (PCF) and two other small left parties. The two Belgian green parties also joined a broad coalition government in 1999 gaining in particular from their campaign against the governing parties in the Dutroux scandal, concerning government corruption and incompetence in the case of a serial child murderer.

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book
• 

  eBook - PDF

  The Politics of the Environment

  Ideas, Activism, Policy

  • Neil Carter(Author)
  • 2007(Publication Date)
  • Cambridge University Press

    (Publisher)

  The success of the Belgian green parties in the 1999 elections was linked to a scandal involving the contamination of the poultry and dairy food chain with highly poisonous dioxins (Hooghe and Rihoux 2000). A strong concern about environmental issues sharply differ- entiates supporters of the Finnish Green League from supporters of other parties (Zilliacus 2001: 44). Thus in searching for sophisticated political sci- ence explanations for the rise of green parties we should not sacrifice the most straightforward interpretation: that in the ‘risk society’ (Beck 1992) support for the greens may be driven by a specific concern about the objec- tive state of the environment, as much as it is a reflection of postmaterial values. ◗ New challenges The fortunes of individual green parties may wax and wane, but the over- all movement has established a reasonably secure and increasingly impor- tant role in several countries. Apart from the long-standing unfulfilled task of matching this achievement in the UK, USA, Australia, Canada and else- where, there are two important contemporary challenges facing the green movement. One challenge in those five countries where green parties have entered government is to retain electoral support when they are no longer a party of protest. Green parties are likely to confront a particular tension: whilst judged by the wider public on their ability to act as responsible members of the government, many Green voters are expressing an anti-establishment protest and may be critical of their party’s involvement in the dirty business of government. It may be impossible to satisfy both constituencies. It is too 110 Green parties early to draw any firm conclusions about the electoral impact of government incumbency.

  Sign up to read

  Learn more about book