THE GREEN PARTY   POLITICAL ANALYSIS

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The emergence of the green movements was related to a shift to post-materialist values in advanced industrial societies, especially in Europe (Muller-Rommel, 2002). Aiming for better quality of life and self-fulfilment, the green agenda was originally focused on single issues like provision of park tracks, urban renewal, high-way construction, nuclear energy and cruise missiles in the 1980s. During the period of 1980 to 1984 there were Green Parties in twelve Western European countries with which started to successfully perform in the parliamentary system, including national government (Muller-Rommel, 2002).

During the 1970s, Green Parties were founded in more countries like Europe, Australia, Brazil, the USA and Ukraine (Doherty, 2002). Although the first Green Parties were established in Tasmania (1972), New Zealand (1972) and Britain (1973), they were not considered as successful and remained small and weak in their political performance.

Although the different green parties were all based on the same basic principles, their evolution, progress and electoral success vary widely between different countries. As table 1.1 shows, Austria, Belgium Finland, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherland, Sweden and Switzerland identified as the countries with more successful Green Parties. Green party success is a multi-variable phenomena (Richard). Existence, electoral and parliamentary power of green parties , their electoral success and environmental consciousness are vary widely between countries (Rich).