De politieke identiteit van de Vlaamse Groene Partij AGALEV

Abstract

The ecology movement consists of several different sub-groups : traditional conservationists, environmental agitators, critical intellectuals and scientists as welt as the «back-to-nature» counter-culture and the Green parties. This article concentrates on one of the most interestingparts of the Flemish ecology movement : the «alternative life-style» movement Anders Gaan Leven and its Green party Agalev.The social position of the ecologists can be set with the help of the concepts «resistance» and «integration». On the one side, they seem to be the heir of the protest movements of the sixties. On the other side, they are part of a trend towards political demobilization.Politically, the Green parties draw their support from the « secundary elites » : people who are young, highly educated but who are not (yet) part of the establishment. The theories of Inglehart and Boy connect this sociat position with the politica! orientation of the ecologists.In the specific case of Flanders, the Green party Agalev seems to become the political alternative for progressive christians who have broken with the Catholic «pillar», hut who cannot recognize themselves in the other traditional parties.