in western Europe today, Green parties are an integral part of parliamentary politics; in Germany, whose case has been analysed here, the Green party is a ruling party in coalition governments in some provinces. But Green party politics was significant not for capturing power, but for being radical-ecological, alternative in style and content to all other parties and for standing in solidarity with the Third World.

The German Green party originated in the new social movements of the early '70s, which were the results of various grievances such as those against environmental degradation, dissatisfaction with the established political process which allowed little scope for self-determination and opposition to nuclear energy. In the second half of the decade came the women's movement and the movement for alternative life-forms known as the