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The Role of the Greens in West German Parliamentary Politics, 1980–87

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 August 2009

E. Gene Frankland
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Extract

This article deals with the evolving role of the Greens (Die Grünen) in the West German political system. It focuses on the “parliamentarization” of the Greens in the Bundestag (federal parliament) and in the Landtage (state parliaments) of Baden-Württemberg, Hesse, and Hamburg. Utilizing personal interviews, parliamentary archives, opinion polls, and party documents, it considers both the impact of the Greens upon the parliamentary system and the impact of the system upon the Greens. The study finds that, despite serious situational and organizational constraints, the Greens in these parliaments have generally been a “creative” oppositional force. However, parliamentary learning experiences have contributed inevitably to the classical dilemma confronting the Greens: How can the “alternative” party become more influential in parliamentary politics without also becoming more like the established parties?

Type
Research Article
Information
The Review of Politics , Volume 50 , Issue 1 , Winter 1988 , pp. 99 - 122
Copyright
Copyright © University of Notre Dame 1988

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References

Notes

1. Smith, Gordon, Politics in Western Europe, 4th ed. (New York: Holmes & Meier, 1984), p. 93.Google Scholar

2. Veen, Hans-Joachim, “The Coloration of the Greens,” German Comments, 04 1985, p. 25.Google Scholar

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8. After the April 1987 Hesse election, Joschka Fischer, the Greens' environmental minister in the SPD-Green coalition during 1985–87, became the speaker of the Fraktion. Due to his national prominence as a leader of the Realos (realist) wing, the power structure has become more hierarchical within the Green parliamentary group in Wiesbaden.

9. The seventh deputy had replaced a person who resigned after serving only a year. In spring 1986 he refused to give up the seat because his successor would be a fundamentalist who might sabotage the narrow majority by which the SPD-Green coalition survived. More recently Hesse Greens abandoned the requirement of midterm rotation for Landtag deputies.

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15. Interviews: Tulpenfeld, Bonn-Haus, 13–15 05 1985.Google Scholar

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23. 1980–84 parliamentary statistics are from the Information Office of the Baden-Württemberg Landtag; statistics for June 1984-April 1985 were provided by Frau Holzner of the Landtag administration.

24. Parliamentary statistics for October 1982-April 1987 were provided by Roland Schmidt of the Hesse Landtag Information and Documentation Service.

25. Lessle, Dieter Felix, “Die ‘fliessigste’ Wahlperiode: Landtag mit neuen Erfahrungen,” Das Parlament, 20 04 1985, p. 3.Google Scholar

26. Hamburg parliamentary statistics for June 1982-November 1986 were provided by Karl-Heinz Stahnke of the Bürgerschaftskanzlei.

27. Ebermann, Thomas and Trampert, Rainer, Die Zukunft der Grünen, 3rd ed. (Hamburg: Konkret Literatur Verlag, 1985), pp. 277–78.Google Scholar

28. During April and May 1985, open-ended interviews were conducted with a nonrandom sample of thirty-five Green politicians. The sample included eighteen deputies, nine staff assistants, and eight party officials or workers at the federal and state levels. Seven were interviewed in Bonn, eight in Baden-Württemberg, ten in Hesse, and ten in Hamburg. Average interview duration was ninety minutes. The quote is from the interview with Hesse Landtag deputy Jochen Vielhauer, Wiesbaden, 24 April 1985.

29. “Wer verbreitet hier parlamentarische Illusionen? Ein Gespräch mit Thomas Ebermann,” in Was sollen die Grünen im Parlament?, pp. 142–43.Google Scholar

30. EMNID survey reported in Der Spiegel, 6 05 1986, p. 46.Google Scholar

31. Wahlen, Forschungsgruppe e.V., Bundestagswahl 1987: Eine Analyse der Wahl zum 11. Deutschen Bundestag am 25. Januar 1987 (Mannheim, 1987), p. 56.Google Scholar

32. Parliamentary activities of the Greens in Bremen (since 1983) and Lower Saxony and of the Alternative List in W. Berlin closely resemble in qualitative and quantitative terms those found in the three Landtage studied here.

33. Except for the Hamburg GAL and the Berlin AL, Green Land parties have abandoned midterm rotation for future Landtag deputies.

34. During June 1987 the author interviewed thirty-one Green politicians in Bonn, Hamburg, Hesse, Lower Saxony, and Berlin. These included nine deputies, fifteen staff assistants, and seven party officials or workers. (See footnote 28 for information regarding the interviews in 1985.)

35. During this time period, the GAL outpolled the FDP in the most recent Hamburg election (May 1987) and in the second most recent election (November 1986). In the other states, only one Landtag election occurred between March 1984 and September 1987.