Managing Strategic Positioning Choices: A Reappraisal of the Development Paths of the French and German Green Parties

Abstract

To what extent have green parties been pawns of circumstance or arbiters of their own destiny? Whilst interpretations in terms of ‘political opportunity structures’ suggest that party development is mainly determined by external factors, detailed analysis reveals the growing significance of political agency exercised by small parties. During their history, the green parties of France and Germany have rotated through a range of positioning options and, in conditions of accelerated change within political systems, the importance of agency has increased. Reappraisal of the developmental paths of ecology parties shows that the impact of their own ability (or inability) to identify and manage strategic positioning choices may have been underestimated.

Notes

Correspondence Address: Joseph Szarka, Department of European Studies and Modern Languages, University of Bath, Bath BA2 7AY, UK. Email: [email protected]

In presidential elections in France, in parliamentary elections in Germany.

See Frankland and Schoonmaker (1992), Raschke (1993), Ru¨dig (2002).

On party history, see Prendiville (1993), Villalba (1996), Sainteny (1997).

For early analyses exploring the diversity of French Greens see Abe´le`s (1993), Bennahmias and Roche (1992), Boy (1981).

See Sainteny (1998).

See Szarka (1999).

For detailed discussion see Szarka (2003).

See Les Verts (2002).

See the report by Rihoux et al. (2002) which provides penetrating insights into party (dis)organisation.

For detailed analysis see Blu¨hdorn (2004a).

In Hesse, Lower Saxony, Bremen, Bavaria, Saarland, Brandenburg and Saxony, the Greens have gained on average 2.45%.