The Politics of the Environment: Ideas, Activism, Policy, 2nd Edition

PARTIES AND MOVEMENTS

6.1 Institutionalisation

Globalisation and the environment

involves the growing acceptance of

environmental values, concerns and

organisations so that environmental collective

action becomes a regular and normal feature of

the established political system.

Van der Heijden ( 1997 ) identifies three

aspects of institutionalisation:

1. organisational growth –in membership and
   income;


2. internal institutionalisation– professionali-
   sation and centralisation of the organisation;


3. external institutionalisation–ashift from
   unconventional actions (e.g. direct action)
   to conventional actions (e.g. lobbying) as
   groups gain regular access to the policy
   process.

The following sections use this typology to analyse two key trends in the

development of the environmental movement: the institutionalisation of

themainstream movement and the revitalisation of the grassroots sector.

Critical question 1

Is it accurate or helpful to refer to a single environmental movement?

◗ The institutionalisation of the

environmental movement

There is general agreement that the environmental movement in North

America and Western Europe has become increasingly institutionalised (van

der Heijden 1997 , 1999;Brand 1999 ;Diani and Donati 1999 ;Dryzek et al.

2003 ;Rootes 2003 ;Bosso 2005 )(seeBox6.1). Although there is considerable

variation between countries, with institutionalisation most pronounced in

Nordic countries, Germany and the Netherlands, and weakest in France and

Southern Europe, overall it seems that the mainstream environmental move-

ment has chosen reform over revolution. It has cast off any radical social

movement roots in order to work within the political system; thus partici-

patory principles and unconventional tactics have been replaced by profes-

sionalisation and conventional methods. This section analyses the nature

and extent of this institutionalisation, using the criteria laid out in Box6.1,

byfocusing in particular on the development of Friends of the Earth and

Greenpeace.

First, the experience of ‘environmental’ groups should be distinguished

from that of traditional conservation groups for whom institutionalisation

is an unquestionable sign of success. Most conservation groups were ‘born

institutionalised’ (Doyle and McEachern 2001 :101). They started out as eli-

tist associations seeking moderate reforms within the existing socio-political

order. The modern, mass-membership conservation groups remain hierar-

chical organisations, with limited democratic rights granted to members,