The Formation of Green Parties Environmentalism, State Response, and Political Entrepreneurship

Abstract

Ideas and institutional response to ideas count but political entrepreneurship decides. New parties are formed not only through the emergence of new ideas, but also through a combination of new ideas and unfavorable responses to new ideas by existing state institutions. The role of political entrepreneurs is crucial. When the state and, particularly, major conventional parties fail to provide acceptable forms of linkage between the electorate and the government, a climate favourable towards for the formation of new parties is created. If, in these situations, there are risk-prone political entrepreneurs willing to shoulder the heavy burden of organization-building, new parties will be formed. Underlying the formation of Green parties in the 1970’s and 1980’s is the wave of environmentalism that has swept the world; and the perceived unfavorable response to this wave of new ideas by the state, particularly the traditional frozen party systems. The triggering factor, however, is the availability of risk-taking political entrepreneurs who are willing to make the necessary sacrifices in order to organize a new party. Behind the formation of the Green Party in Sweden in 1981 are at least three perceived failures on behalf of the conventional five-party system, all of which are related to their responses to environmentalism, or more particularly, antinuclear sentiments: 1) the failure, after 1976, of the admittedly antinuclear Center Party to discard nuclear energy, 2) the politicking of the Social Democrats, the Liberals and the Moderates in order to save face in the 1980 referendum, and 3) the alleged betrayal of the antinuclear cause by the Center Party and the Left-Party Communists, through their promise to abide by the result of the plebiscite. The situation created by these perceived failures was used by a political entrepreneur to form a party.