Green Parties and Policies after the Economic Crisis

The financial and economic crisis has lasting effects on European political systems. Governments were replaced, parties challenged by new populism and party systems reconfigured. In this paper we ask for the impact of the crisis on party policy change, particularly with regard to green parties and environmental policies. We argue that the crisis – which emphasizes economic-materialistic issues and downplays ecologic-postmaterialistic issues – poses a specific threat to green parties. We ask: Is the era of ‘new politics’ over as support for a postmaterialistic agenda decreases or did green parties react to the crisis by successfully intertwining economic issues into their ecological portfolio? Is there a ‘green’ or a party-specific response? Which saliency has environmentalism for green parties after the crisis? We conduct a longitudinal comparative analysis of policy change (before/after crisis) in European green parties, based on a broad empirical dataset (manifesto, party, party system and political system data).