Green parties have sprung up all over the world, advocating respect for the environment and promoting sustainability.
This is a collectivist philosophy, prioritising the common good over individual interest, and is therefore conventionally regarded as 'left-wing'. The British Green Party’s Core Values included the following commitments, for example:
“The Green Party is a party of social and environmental justice, which supports a radical transformation of society for the benefit of all, and for the planet as a whole.
.. The success of a society cannot be measured by narrow economic indicators, but should take account of factors affecting the quality of life for all people: personal freedom, social equity, health, happiness, human fulfilment along with biodiversity and ecosystem health and stability.”
The political power of Green parties is steadily increasing in the West, but their representation in Parliament depends upon the voting system – as discussed later (6.3.2.4). They have participated in government in Germany, in coalition with the Social Democratic Party (SPD), but a less responsive voting system allocated only 4 seats in the UK Parliament in the 2024 election.
In the absence of parliamentary representation, they can act as a political pressure groups – as described later (6.4.4) – to mobilise public opinion and put pressure on governments.
(This is an archive of a page intended to form part of Edition 4 of the Patterns of Power series of books. The latest versions are at book contents).