GREEN PARTIES

GREEN PARTIES: THEIR ROLES AND FUTURES

The global environmental movement has, to a great extent, matured in the world's developed economies, although many of the objectives of the environmental movement remain unfulfilled. An outgrowth of the global environmental movement, Green political parties, remains a relatively recent phenomenon. This research examines the Green parties in five developed economies with a view toward identifying the roles of these political organizations, as well as their future prospects. The countries whose Green parties are examined are Belgium, France, Germany,, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

The ecology parties in Belgium learned that the realities of interest group politics in a parliamentary democracy militates against the tendency of new social movements to introduce dramatic changes in a political system.1 To make any headway at within a system of parliamentary democracy, the Belgian green parties have had to sacrifice some ideology to gain effectiveness, Thus, the functioning of these parties (Agalev in Flanders and Ecolo in Wallonia) has been characterized to some extent by compromise. This tendency to compromise was illustrated by the decision of Ecolo to drop demands for steep ecotaxes that would be applied to all single-use consumer goods.2 The Ecolo Party has not dropped the goal of taxing single-use consumer goods, but has adopted a new strategy calling for a gradual imposi

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in. Beginning in the Spring of 1994, however, the political fortunes of die Grunen began to improve.14 By September of 1994, the possibility of being in a coalition government with the Social Democrats appeared to be within reach.15 In the end, die Grunen won 40 seats in the October 1994 election with approximately 7.3 percent of the total vote.16 The Greens were highly successful in West German states, but not in the states of the former East Germany. In the October election, the Christian Democrats led by Chancellor Kohl narrowly retained power. The future of the Greens in Germany appears to be bright. The Green Party in the United Kingdom In the United Kingdom, environmental groups other than green political parties have traditionally spearheaded green causes.17 The Ecology Party, however, was formed in Britain in 1973.18 As the United Kingdom has no proportional representation system, however, the Ecology Party has been unsuccessful in winning any seats in Parliament. The role of the Ecology Party in Britain, however, has been of importance in the development of so-called green ideas. Citizen participation in the Ecology Party in Britain also has continued to grow at a substantial rate.19 The Ecology party event

Category: Government - G