Green Party

A political party that belongs to the family of the socalled New Politics parties is commonly named a Green party (sometimes also alternative party or ecological party). Such parties were founded in the late 1970s and in the early 1980s in most of the Western industrialized countries. Shortly after their emergence, Poguntke (1987) developed a first theoretical description and definition of the New Politics party family that has found widespread acceptance in the literature. According to this definition, New Politics parties differ from traditional political parties with respect to their programmatic orientation, their party organization, their political style, and the profile of their members and voters.

Poguntke deduced all the specific characteristics of this party family from the central characteristics of the New Politics. The term ...