Real progress: Prospects for green party support in Britain

Parliamentary Affairs

Volumn 62, Issue 1, 2009, Pages 53-71

  Birch, Sarah ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF ESSEX   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 58149107361     PISSN: 00312290     EISSN: 14602482     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1093/pa/gsn037     Document Type: Article

References (70)

1. I would like to thank Chris Rose, National Election Agent of the Green Party of England and Wales, for supplying data used in the preparation of this paper. I would also like to thank participants in 'Politics Beyond the Mainstream: First Annual International Conference on Minor Parties, Independent Politicians, Voter Associations and Political Associations in Politics' (University of Birmingham, 29 November-1 December 2007) for comments on an earlier draft. All remaining errors are my own.
2. W. Rüdig, 'The Greens in Europe: Ecological Parties and the European Elections of 1984', Parliamentary Affairs, 38, 1985, 56-72, at p. 67.
3. C. A. Rootes, 'Environmentalist and Political Competition; The British Greens in the 1989 Elections to the European Parliament', Politics, 11, 1991, 39-44, at p. 39.
4. W. Rüdig and M. Franklin, 'Green Prospects: The Future of Green Parties in Britain, France and Germany' in W. Rüdig (ed.), Green Politics Two, Edinburgh University Press, 1992, pp. 37-57, at p. 37,
5. W. Rüdig, 'Is Government Good for Greens? Comparing the Electoral Effects of Government Participation in Western and East-Central Europe', European journal of Political Research, 45, 2006, S127-54.
6. The one partial exception is Cynog Dafis, elected as MP for Ceredigion and Pembroke North at the 1992 general election. Dafis was supported jointly by the Greens and Plaid Cymru, but it is debatable whether he can be viewed as having been a Green MP, as he was a longstanding member of Plaid Cymru, and the Greens distanced themselves from the electoral alliance as early as 1995 (C. Fowler and R. Jones, 'Can Environmentalism and Nationalism be Reconciled? The Plaid Cymru/Green Party Alliance, 1991-1995', Regional & Federal Studies, 16, 2006, 315-31).
7. P. Byrne, Social Movements in Britain, Routldege, 1997.
8. For a detailed account of the formation and early years of the party, see W. Rüdig and P. D. Lowe, 'The Withered "Greening" of British Politics: a Study of the Ecology Party', Political Studies, 24, 1986, 262-84,
9. M, O'Neill, Green Parties and Political Change in Contemporary Europe: New Politics, Old Predicaments, Ashgate, 1997;
10. C.A, Rootes, op. cit. n3;
11. C.A. Rootes, 'Britain: Greens in a Cold Climate' in D. Richardson and C. Rootes (eds), The Green Challenge; The Development of Green Parties in Europe, Routledge, 1995, pp. 66-90.
12. J. Burchell, The Evolution of Green Politics: Development and Change within European Green Parties, Earthscan, 2002, pp. 76-7;
13. N. Carter, The Green Party: Emerging from the Political Wilderness?', British Politics, 3, 2008, 23-40;
14. G.E. Frankland, 'Does Green Politics Have a Future in Britain? An American Perspective' in W. Rüdig (ed.), Green Politics One, Edinburgh University Press, 1990, pp. 7-28, at p. 9;
15. M. O'Neill, op. cit. n9, at 286;
16. C.A. Rootes, op. cit. n9, at 68;
17. W. Rüdig and P.D. Lowe, op. cit. n 8.
18. G.E. Frankland, op. cit. n9, at 11;
19. M. O'Neill, op. cit. n9, at 300-12;
20. W. Rüdig, L. Bennie and M. Franklin, 'The Mixed Fortunes of the British Green Party, 1989-1992', in J. Holder, P. Lane, S. Eden, R. Reeve, U. Collier and K. Anderson (eds), Perspectives on the Environment, Avebury, 1993, pp. 29-42.
21. Byrne, op. cit. n7, at 157;
22. N. Carter, op, cit. n10;
23. G.E. Frankland, op. cit. n10, at 10;
24. M. O'Neill, op, cit. n9, at 302-3;
25. W. Rüdig and P. D. Lowe, op. cit. n8, Cross-national analysis has also pointed to unitary state structures such as that of the UK as being less conducive to Green party success than federal structures (F. Müller-Rommel, 'Explaining the Electoral Success of Green Parties: A Cross-National Analysis', Environmental Politics, 7, 1998, 145-54; cf. K. Carter, op. cit. n10).
26. K. Carter, 'Party Politicisation of the Environment in Britain', Party Politics, 12, 2006, 747-67.
27. N. Carter, op. cit. n10.
28. C.A. Rootes, op. cit. n9, at 77,
29. In fact, the party had at this point already saved one Westminster deposit, in the Vauxhall by-election of 1989, which coincided with polling for the European Parliament (G.E. Frankland, op. cit. n10, at 15),
30. N. Carter and C. Rootes, 'The Environment and the Greens in the 2005 Elections in Britain', Environmental Politics, 15, 2006, 473-8;
31. P. Webb, 'The Continuing Advance of the Minor Parties' in P. Norris and C. Wlezien (eds), Britain Votes 2005, Oxford University Press, 2005, pp. 101-19.
32. P. Norris, 'The British Parliamentary Constituency Database 1992-2005, Release 1.1', May 2005, www.pippanorris.com. The analysis covers England and Wales only, as census data corresponding to the newly redrawn Scottish constituencies had yet to be released when the data set was compiled.
33. G.E. Frank land, op. cit. n10, at 19;
34. C.A. Rootes, op. cit. n9, at 73;
35. W. Rüdig and M. Franklin, op. cit. n4;
36. W. Rüdig, M. N. Franklin and L.G. Bennie, 'Up and Down with the Greens: Ecology and Party Politics in Britain, 1989-1992', Electoral Studies, 15, 1996, 1-20.
37. C.A. Rootes, op, cit. n9, at 77, Variables designating the proportion voting Labour, Conservative, and Liberal Democrat in 2001 and 2005 were all experimented with in previous versions of this model, but none of them proved significant, and they were excluded in the final model presented here to avoid multicollinearity.
38. M.N. Franklin and W. Rüdig, 'On the Durability of Green Politics': Evidence from the 1989 European Election Study', Comparative Political Studies, 28, 1995, 409-39;
39. C.A. Rootes, op. cit. n9;
40. W. Rüdig and M. Franklin, op. cit. n4;
41. W. Rüdig, M.N. Franklin and L.G. Bennie, op, cit. n19.
42. W. Rüdig and M. Franklin, op. cit. n4;
43. W. Rüdig, M.N. Franklin and L.G. Bennie, op. cit. n19.
44. This model excludes Scotland for the reasons outlined in note 5. For obvious reasons, it includes only those constituencies that were sampled by the BES. On multi-level modelling, see M.R. Steenbergen and B.S. Jones, 'Modeling Multilevel Data Structures', American Journal of Political Science, 46, 2002, 218-37.
45. It is also noteworthy that once values are taken into consideration, public sector employment no longer reaches conventional levels of statistical significance.
46. Byrne, op. cit. n7, at 151;
47. G.E. Frankland, op, cit. n10, at 21;
48. M. O'Neill, op. cit. n9, at 290;
49. C.A. Rootes, op. cit. n3, at 40;
50. C.A. Rootes, op. cit. n9, at 70-1;
51. W. Rüdig, M.N. Franklin and L.G. Bennie, op. cit. n19.
52. J. Burchell, op. cit. n10;
53. N. Carter, op. cit. n10;
54. M. O'Neill, op. cit. n9, at 286;
55. C.A. Rootes, op. cit. n9, at 68, W. Rüdig and P.D. Lowe, op. cit. n8.
56. Independent Commission on the Voting System, 'Report of the Independent Commission on the Voting System', October 1998, cm 4090,
57. G. Brown, 'Constitutional Reform Statement', Delivered to the House of Commons, 3 July 2007, http://www.number10.gov.uk/output/Page12274.asp.
58. 'Voting Reforms to Be Shelved, Report Claims', Guardian 20 August 2007.
59. Royal Commission on the Reform of the House of Lords, 'A House for the Future', Royal Commission on the Reform of the House of Lords, January 2000, cm 4534.
60. G. Brown, op. cit. n28.
61. H. Phillips, 'Strengthening Democracy: Fair and Sustainable Funding of Political Parties', March 2007, http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-files/Politics/ documents/2007/03/15/partyfunding.pdf.
62. Ministry of Justice, 'Party Finance and Expenditure in the United Kingdom: The Government's Proposals', June 2008, cm 7329, http://www.official- documents.gov.uk/document/cm73/7329/7329.pdf.
63. J. Burchell, 'Here Come the Greens (Again); The Green Party in Britain During the 1990s', Environmental Politics, 9, 2000, 145-50, at 113-15; B. Doherty, "The Autumn 1001 Conference pf the UK Green Party', Environmental Politics, 1, 1992, 292-7;
64. A. McCulloch, 'The Green Party in England and Wales: Structure and Development; the Early Years', Environmental Politics, 1, 1992, 418-36;
65. M. O'Neill, op. cit. a9, at 285-300;
66. W. Rüdig and P.D. Lowe, op. cit. n8;
67. W. Rüdig, L, Bennie and M. Franklin, op. cit. n11.
68. N. Carter, op. cit. n10.
69. W. Rudig, L. Bennie and M. Franklin, op. cit. n11, at 36.
70. ibid, at 37.