PARTIES AND MOVEMENTS
in 2000, the implication was that as long as the Democrats remainedrela-
tivelygreener than the Republicans they would keep the loyalty of the envi-
ronmental issue public, without having to adopt a radical programme that
might alienate the wider Democrat constituency. However, Nader’s success
in appealing to this environmental issue public – even with the ‘environ-
mentalist’ Gore as Democratic candidate – showed that their support for the
Democrats cannot be taken for granted. The dilemma for Democrat strate-
gists is that efforts to win over this group by offering a ‘greener’ agenda run
therisk of alienating the far larger group of centrist independent swing
voters that the party needs if it is to win elections (Guber 2003 :121–2).
In the USA, the environment is not an electorally salient issue and the
major political parties have only partially embraced the environmental chal-
lenge. Yet environmental politics have become increasingly partisan and,
with polling evidence showing that pro-environment attitudes among the
wider public are now clearly associated with holding a liberal ideology and
supporting the Democrats, whilst conservatives and Republicans are less
likely to be pro-environment (Dunlap et al. 2001 : 45; Dalton 2006 :143), that
trend seems likely to continue. However, the bottom line is that on several
keyissues, notably climate change, the opposition to environmental mea-
sures – especially increased fuel taxes – is so strong that even the Democrats
are wary about adopting a potentially unpopular green stance.Critical question 3
Does the party politicisation of the environment require the presence of a
strong green party?◗ Explaining party politicisation
This section draws a number of conclusions from the case studies about
thenature and extent of the party politicisation of the environment. First,
there has been a limited party politicisation of the environment in all three
countries. The environment is now established on the political agenda and
no party can afford to ignore it. A major factor driving this process every-
where has been the strength of public concern about environmental prob-
lems (Eurobarometer 1999 ; Dalton 2006 :113). Fluctuations in the level and
intensity of public opinion help explain variation in the enthusiasm shown
by parties for environmental issues (Guber 2003 :ch. 3). Broadly speaking,
people are most agitated about the environment during periods of eco-
nomic prosperity and least interested when economic recession draws atten-
tion back to materialist issues. Thus the upsurge of interest in the mid/late
1980s, fuelled by growing knowledge about global problems and accentuated
by precipitating events, such as the Chernobyl andExxon Valdezaccidents,
undoubtedly contributed to the greening of German, British and Ameri-
can political parties during this period. Elsewhere, the intensity of public