PARTIES AND MOVEMENTS
13 per cent in an election and turn into a power-hungry party. It would
be better for us to stay at 6 or 7 per cent and remain uncompromising in
our basic demands. Better to do that than have green ministers’ (quoted in
Markovits and Gorski 1993 :124).
Die Grunen therefore set out to be an alternative kind of party that would ̈
resist oligarchical tendencies and the corrupting temptations of the parlia-
mentary arena. It was also hoped that this distinctive approach to politics
might encourage a more participatory political culture throughout society.◗ The ‘ anti-party party’ in practice: no longer a protest party?
Can the APP concept ‘work’, and is it essential for green politics that it does?
The organisational development of all political parties, including the Greens,
is shaped by competition from other parties (Duverger 1954 ). Upon entering
the parliamentary arena, a green party will immediately be subjected to
strongpressure – thelogic of electoral competition(Kitschelt 1990 )– to replace
theAPP model with the hierarchical, bureaucratic and professional struc-
tures characteristic of established parties. However, vote maximisation is not
theonly factor shaping party organisation; in particular, the strength of
ideological convictions of the party membership – thelogic of constituency
representation – might provide a counterbalance (Panebianco 1988 ). Die
Gr ̈unen has faced the constant dilemma of choosing between radical strat-
egies of fundamental opposition to conventional party politics and moder-
ate strategies of compromise intended to achieve incremental policy change.
Whilst the radical strategy may keep core green voters content, it is less likely
toattract broader support; by contrast, whereas the moderate strategy may
win more votes, the resulting dilution of the APP model could antagonise
thegrassroots membership.
This strategic tension has underpinned the internal conflict between the
Fundamentalists (fundis)andtheRealists(realos)that has plagued the party
throughout its existence (see Box5.2).^1 Broadly speaking, the two perspec-
tives share the same long-term aim – to achieve an ecologically sustainable
world – but disagree over the best means of getting there. Fundamental-
ists are firmly wedded to the APP and suspicious of the benefits of working
within the parliamentary system. Realists believe that Greens can win sig-
nificant incremental changes within the parliamentary system. Die Grunen ̈
wasformed in 1980 when movement politics was in full swing and activists
were hopeful that growing public awareness of the immediacy of the ecolog-
ical crisis would provide the catalyst for radical change both inside and out-
side the parliamentary arena. However, during the 1980s, movement politics
went into decline, leaving the Greens as the main voice of ecological con-
cern. No longer was a transformation of the political system on the horizon;
radical ambitions had to be tempered. The Greens had to come to terms with
being a small party that regularly attracted no more than 10 per cent of the
vote.From the mid-1980s, leading Realists, such as Joschka Fischer, argued