Green Parties After the Financial Crisis

Abstract

The financial crisis and subsequent economic turbulence have posed some potentially existential challenges to the Green party family. The common understanding of these parties as 'postmaterialist' might lead one to imagine a drop in support for parties which have consistently championed supposedly 'quality of life' issues – such as the environment, cleaner energy creation and more direct forms of political participation – at a time when problems such as sluggish growth and sovereign debt occupy the heart of public discourse. However, there has been no apparent Green existential crisis. To offer just a few examples, Green parties performed relatively and in some cases unusually well in the European parliamentary elections in mid-2009; the French party has refounded itself and expanded its membership significantly on the basis of recent electoral success, and now finds itself once more in government; and Bündnis 90/Die Grünen would appear to be continuing undisturbed on its forward march as a key force in German politics. Furthermore, across Europe, Green parties have developed national permutations of the 'Green New Deal' policy to effectively demonstrate the relevance of a distinctly Green voice through periods of economic crisis. This panel seeks contributions which will further the understanding of Green parties operating within the latest economic context. We would particularly encourage papers which address shifts in Green economic policy, or the significance of an anti-growth politics at a point where the future of growth is all but certain. More broadly, we would welcome papers which address recent institutional, policy and ideological developments in Green parties in Europe and beyond and which in general terms might yield an insight into the state of Green parties today.

Title	Details
Coming of Age? Australian Greens After the GFC	View Paper Details
A New Era for Green Ideology: The Diverging and Emergent Policies of the Green Parties of England and Wales, France and Germany	View Paper Details
Less Green and More Left or Right? The Policy Change of Green Parties in Europe as a Reaction to the Financial Crisis	View Paper Details
Blue in Green: The French Green Voter in the 2012 Presidential Elections	View Paper Details
Eastern European Green Parties after the Economic Crisis – The case of Romanian Green Party	View Paper Details