German Greens: Paradox Between Movement and Party, The

Environmental History, Oct 1999 by Bonhomme, Brian

The German Greens: Paradox Between Movement and Party. Edited by Margit Mayer and John Ely. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1998. vi 344 pp. Illustrations, tables, notes, selected bibliography, list of contributors, index. Cloth $69.95> paper $24.95.

The German Greens: Paradox Between Movement and Party brings together ten essays focused on the problems-and to some extent the opportunities-presented by the German Greens's unique status as both a "movement" (promoting ecological, feminist and grassroots democratic agendas) and a functioning political party. Though several perspectives are brought to bear by the various contributors, a common theme is that the struggle to resolve this fundamental tension-during the 1980s in particular-has resulted in the Greens's evolution from radical and idealistic origins into a "pragmatic and more centrist parliamentarian party" (p. 3). Editors Margit Mayer and John Ely, who also wrote the introductory essay, view this process more as fruitful moderation than despicable capitulation. The Greens, they argue, though they have largely "shed both `single issue' and `movement' characteristics," have nonetheless achieved important, if "limited," "successes." In particular they have "effectively translated demands originally voiced by various social movements into concrete positions and legislative proposals, thus exerting considerable pressure on the large established parties" (p.4). Another measure of the Greens's success, perhaps, is the adoption by the German political mainstream of some of the issues basic to the Green perspective, though this, it is noted, has also somewhat reduced the uniqueness of the Green Party itself.

Not all the contributors are so sanguine, however. Claudia Pinl, a freelance journalist and former Green activist, calls upon the women's movement to help shore up the Party's flagging commitment to "radical feminism" with "new impulses and renewed support" (p. 139). Another essay asks "What Has Happened to Green Principles in Politics?" and sees lurking the "danger . . . that the Greens will develop into a party dominated by a professionalized oligarchy rotating between party offices and parliamentary seats" (p. 125). Overall, however, the balance between the more-or-less satisfied and the less-than-satisfied is about even.

Of the ten essays presented, most are by political scientists. Although few make compelling reading, virtually all provide useful treatments of important questions relevant to the movement-party "paradox." Two offer explicit suggestions as to how this dilemma might best be resolved, while others explore the Greens's voter base, the fate of specific ecological, feminist, and grassroots agendas within the Greens's increasingly mainstream profile, and the nature of green politics beyond Germany.

Readers interested in the Greens in a more general way (rather than simply in terms of movement-party friction) will find some worthwhile material here also, such as Horst Mewes's survey "A Brief History of the German Green Party." And the editors have appended a very useful collection of original documents, including position papers of the party's major factions, selected parliamentary speeches and statements, early Green poster reproductions and other "founding documents," and sundry "programmatic texts and resolutions." These are all translated into English and run to nearly one-hundred pages. Some may find these documents alone worth the price of the book.

While space does not permit a review of specific issues raised in individual articles, The German Greens merits the attention not only of students of Green and German parliamentary politics, but of anyone interested in a case study of the adaptation of an outsider group to insider and institutionalized status.

Reviewed by Brian Bonhomme, a doctoral candidate at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Mr. Bonhomme teaches courses on Modern European and Environmental History at Brooklyn College and is completing a dissertation on forest conservation in the early Soviet period.