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Parliamentary Politics and the Development of the Green Party in West Germany

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 August 2009

E. Gene Frankland
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Extract

This study deals with the experiences of the Greens (Die Griinen) during the 1980's as a “new” party in West German state and federal parliaments and specifically with the Green parliamentary groups' relationships with the movement-party. The founders of the Greens sought to organize as a decentralized, participatory democracy. Accordingly, they developed rules to hinder the emergence of a professionalized leadership and to restrict the autonomy of parliamentary groups. Utilizing a comparative approach, the author investigates the extent to which the Greens have become “parliamentarized” by the normalizing forces of the established system at state and federal levels. This study relates the Greens' developmental experiences to the “classic” observations of Duverger, Michels, and others about modern party development. Finally, it reviews the recent perspectives of various intraparty groups about the future of the Greens.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Review of Politics , Volume 51 , Issue 3 , Summer 1989 , pp. 386 - 411
Copyright
Copyright © University of Notre Dame 1989

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