Green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of Green politics, which is founded in many countries. These principles usually include social justice, weight loss, reliance on grassroots democracy, nonviolence, and an emphasis on environmentalism. “Greens” believe that the exercise of these principles leads to world health.
There are distinctions between “green parties” (lower-case letters) and “Green Parties” (capital letters). Any party, faction, or politician may be labeled “green” if it emphasizes environmental causes. Indeed, the term may even be used as a verb: it is not uncommon to hear of “greening” a party or a candidate.
In contrast, formally organised “Green Parties” may follow a coherent ideology that includes not only environmentalism, but often also other concerns such as social justice, consensus decision-making, and pacifism. Greens believe that these issues are inherently related to one another as a foundation for world peace. The best-known statement of the above Green values is the Four Pillars of the Green Party, adopted by the German Greens in 1979-1980 (but forsaken since). The Global Greens Charter lists six guiding principles which are ecological wisdom, social justice, participatory democracy, nonviolence, sustainability and respect for diversity.
Green movements call for social reform to cut abuse of natural resources. Examples include Green Parties as well as Greenpeace, which was founded in the 1970s concurrently with many Green Parties. Its aims agree with those of many green movements, though it approaches its objectives in different ways.
The world’s first political parties to campaign on a predominantly environmental platform were the United Tasmania Group which contested the April 1972 state election in Tasmania, Australia and the Values Party of New Zealand, which contested the May 1972 New Zealand general election.[1] The first green party in Europe was the Popular Movement for the Environment, founded in 1972 in the Swiss canton of Neuchâtel. The first national green party in Europe was PEOPLE, founded in Britain in February 1973, which turned eventually into the Ecology Party, and then the Green Party.
The first Green Party to achieve national prominence was the German Green Party, famous for their opposition to nuclear power, as well as an expression of anti-centralist and pacifist values traditional to greens.
They were founded in 1980 and have been in coalition governments at state level for some years. They were in federal government with the Social Democratic Party of Germany in a so-called Red-Green Alliance from 1998 to 2005. In 2001, they reached an agreement to end reliance on nuclear power in Germany, and agreed to remain in coalition and support the German government of Chancellor Gerhard Schröder in the 2001 Afghan War. This put them at odds with many Greens worldwide but demonstrated also that they were capable of difficult political tradeoffs.
In Finland, in 1995, the Finnish Green Party was the first European Green party to be part of a national Cabinet. Other Green Parties that have participated in government at national level include the Groen! (formerly Agalev) and Ecolo in Belgium, Les Verts in France and the Green Party in Ireland. In the Netherlands GroenLinks (“GreenLeft”) was founded in 1990 from four small left-wing parties and is now a stable faction in the Dutch parliament.
Around the world, there has been an explosion of Green Parties over the last thirty years. Green Parties now exist in most countries with democratic systems: from Canada to Peru; from Norway to South Africa; from Ireland to Mongolia. There is Green representation at national, regional and local levels in many countries around the world.
Most of the Green Parties are formed to win elections, and so organize themselves by the presented electoral or political districts. But that does not apply universally: The Green Party of Alaska is organized along bioregional lines to practice bioregional democracy.
Depending on local conditions or issues, platforms and alliances may vary. In line with the goal of democracy, neighboring ecoregions may require different policies or protections.
Green Parties are often formed in a given jurisdiction by a coalition of scientific ecologists, community environmentalists, and local (or national) leftist groups or groups concerned with peace or citizens rights.
A Red-Green Alliance is an alliance between Green Parties and social democratic parties. Such alliances are typically formed for the purpose of elections (mostly in first-past-the-post election systems), or, after elections, for the purpose of forming a government.
Some Greens, such as those in Hawaii, find more effective alliances with more conservative groups (Blue-Green Alliance) or indigenous peoples – who seek to prevent disruption of traditional ways of life or to save ecological resources they depend on. Although Greens find much to support in fostering these types of alliances with groups of historically different backgrounds, they also feel strongly about forming diverse communities through encouragement of diversity in social and economic demographics in communities, especially in the United States.
Alliances often highlight strategic differences between participating in Parties and advancing the values of the Green movement. For example, Greens became allied with centre-right parties to oust the centre-left ruling PRI party of Mexico. Ralph Nader, the 2000 presidential nominee of the US Greens, campaigned with ultra-conservative Pat Buchanan on joint issues such as farm policy and bans on corporate funding of election campaigns, although this “alliance” between Nader and Buchanan was very specifically limited to the purpose of showing that there was broad support for certain specific issues, across the political spectrum.
US Greens grew dramatically throughout 2001. However, stable coalitions (such as that in Germany) tend to be formed between elections with ‘the left’ on social issues, and ‘the grassroots right’ on such issues as irresponsible corporate subsidies and public ethics.
On 13 June 2007, the Irish Green Party represented by 6 members of parliament or TDs agreed to go into a coalition government for the first time in their history, with Fianna Fáil. Fianna Fáil and the Green Party were joined by the Progressive Democrats in coalition and also enjoyed the support of a number of independent members of parliament. (The Progressive Democrats have since been dissolved as a party, though their members remain in parliament.) The Irish Green Party held two Cabinet seats and also two junior ministries until their withdrawal from government in January 2011.
In the Czech Republic, the Green Party was part of the governing coalition, together with the Civic Democrats (ODS) and the Christian Democrats (KDU–?SL) from January 2007 until the government collapsed in March 2009. The Finnish Green Party is now the only one actively participating in government.
