Green Parties in Transition: The End of Grass-roots Democracy? - Hardcover

Lucardie, Paul

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0754674290 ISBN 13: 9780754674290

Publisher: Routledge, 2008

Synopsis

When green parties emerged in the 1980s, not only did they question established ideas about nature and economic growth, they also challenged the 'iron law' of Roberto Michels that all parties inevitably follow a similar path towards informal concentration of power and oligarchy. Grass-roots democracy was both an ideological tenet and an organizational project for practically all green parties. These days the greens have lost their glamour and innocence. They have grown up and even joined governing coalitions in several countries. Did they leave grass-roots democracy by the roadside on the way to power? This book investigates to what extent green parties have remained true to their identity or have been transformed. Country specialists analyze the development of green parties in 14 countries across the world - not only Western Europe but also Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States. These analyses also offer clues on broader questions about party types and party change in contemporary democracies.

About this title

About the Author

E. Gene Frankland, Ball State University, USA, Paul Lucardie, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, The Netherlands and Benoît Rihoux, Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium.

Edition details

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0754674290
• ISBN 13: 9780754674290
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 306
• Editor: Frankland E. Gene