German Green Party: the evolution of political agenda

Emil Kwidziński

doi:10.26881/jpgs.2020.2.06

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to present the evolution of the political agenda of the German Green Party (Die Grünen) between 1980 (establishment of the party, its first program manifesto – Das Bundesprogramm) and 2017 (recent German federal elections program – Zukunft Wird aus Mut Gemacht. Bundestagswahlprogramm). The research was conducted on the basis of the literature and the comparison of the two mentioned program manifestos. The hypothesis of the work is that the successes of the Greens in West Germany mainly result from the ideological, program, and strategic reorientation of the party that took place at the turn of 1980s and 1990s.

Highlights

IntroductionGreen (ecological) parties emerged began to appear on the European political scene in the late 1970s and 1980s
Green parties emerged began to appear on the European political scene in the late 1970s and 1980s
The purpose of the article is to present the evolution of the political agenda of the German Green Party (Die Grünen) between 1980 and 2017

Summary

Introduction

Green (ecological) parties emerged began to appear on the European political scene in the late 1970s and 1980s Their formation coincided and was a consequence of significant changes in social values of the inhabitants of highly developed countries, the progressing ecological threats, and the disappointment of the young generation with the consensual politics of the two dominant political doctrines in Western Europe – social democracy and Christian Democrats. The characteristic features of the emerging Green parties were the reluctance to mainstream parliamentary politics, which – according to activists – was unable to work out effective solutions to the ecological problems facing mankind at the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries. Its first election successes in the 1980s, followed by participation in governments at the regional and central level (coalition with the SPD in 1998–2005), showed the growing importance of post-material values among Western European societies including concern for the environment which is increasingly devastated by industrial and technological development (Kaelberer, 1998; Tranter, Western, 2009)

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