Environmental Politics: To Cite This Article: Stephen C. Young (1992) The Different Dimensions of Green

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The different dimensions of

green politics
a
Stephen C. Young
a
Senior Lecturer in the Government
Department , Manchester University , UK
Published online: 08 Nov 2007.
To cite this article: Stephen C. Young (1992) The different dimensions of green
politics, Environmental Politics, 1:1, 9-44, DOI: 10.1080/09644019208414007
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The Different Dimensions of Green Politics
STEPHEN C. YOUNG
The purposes of this article are to define green politics and to set out the range of
issues that Environmental Politics aims to cover. It is based around an extensive
flow chart. This exploits the distinction between deep and shallow ecology. Deep
ecologists argue that the only way to tackle the environmental problems facing the
planet is via fundamental reforms of the way society is organised. The shallow
ecologists, or environmental reformists, claim that it is possible to reconcile
economic growth with the needs of the environment. The green parties are torn
between the two positions. Their ideological roots are on the deep ecology side of
the flow chart. But they have to operate in the context of the problems confront-
ing governments now. This forces them into compromising their principles, or
more or less opting out of the political system. The approach adopted in the article
is to divide each of the three main areas of deep ecology, environmental
reformism and the green parties up into a series of boxes as the flow chart
progresses. The discussion of each of the 30 boxes outlines the issues, relates them
to the existing literature, and, in many cases, makes suggestions for articles and
further research.
As environmental issues began to move up political and academic

agendas during the 1980s, the phrase 'green politics' came increasingly
into vogue. The aims of this article are twofold. First, it offers a definition
of green politics. The approach taken is to divide it all up into its different
aspects, by developing a flow chart to explore its various dimensions. This
then leads on to the article's second aim, which is to convey the scope of
all that Environmental Politics will be covering.
There is also a geographical dimension to this article. The focus of
Environmental Politics and of the flow chart is on the developed indus-
trial societies - that is Western Europe, Eastern Europe, North America,
Japan and Australasia. Some global issues will be dealt with, like the
politics of the ozone layer and of Antarctica. But the environmental
Stephen C. Young is a Senior Lecturer in the Government Department at Manchester

University in the UK. He is grateful for all comments and encouragement received while
developing this article.
Environmental Politics, Vol. 1, No. 1, Spring 1992, pp.9-44

PUBLISHED BY FRANK CASS, LONDON
10 ENVIRONMENTAL POLITICS
dimension of Third World issues, and bi-lateral links between the

developed world and Third World countries are excluded here. The
editors felt that, while relevant, these issues are just too big to try to cover
as well.
The approach adopted in the flow chart is to explain what each box is
about, giving, where appropriate, examples of published work. The aim
here is not just to convey the scope of green politics, but to make lots of
detailed suggestions for future research, and for articles that the editors
would be glad to receive.
The Emergence of Green Politics
The starting point for green politics is the Industrial Revolution of the late
eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Some argue that it was not a
revolution as such, that the mills, the factories, the cities and all that went
with it evolved from earlier changes. But no one would dispute that what
happened led on to fundamental changes in society. In Britain, Western
Europe and North America there was accelerating industrial investment
and expansion on the basis of technological innovation. During the
nineteenth and twentieth centuries populations grew and cities mush-
roomed. This all fuelled the processes of economic growth. There were
recessions, but over the long term, technological change sparked off
continued economic growth and industrial expansion through to the end
of the twentieth century. These processes are represented in Box 1 in the
flow chart. They are summarised by Rostow [I960].
One particular interpretation of these events is useful to the
greenanalysis. The Russian economist Kondratiev argued that there has
been a series of waves of economic growth [Healey and Ilberry 1990:
15-16]. As each wave peaked and recession began to set in, the seeds of
the next surge of expansion were laid because new areas of technology
were developed. As the wave of expansion set off by the growth in
petrochemicals and electrical consumer goods began to decline in the
1970s and 1980s, the information technology revolution began to take
over. Such changes lead to new trends in investment and - if the theory
holds - should spark off the next wave of growth. An important feature of
this waves theory is that industry moves its location. The first textile mills
needed water power. They were built by rivers, often in remote valleys.
As steam power became available, industrialists moved to the cities. In
the late twentieth century as technology developed, and the need for
cheap labour became paramount, textile companies invested in Third
World cities. In the meantime, poets like Ted Hughes [1979:14] have
THE DIFFERENT DIMENSIONS OF GREEN POLITICS 11
noticed that the first mills, hidden in the woods in their valleys, are
returning to earth.
From the green perspective two issues arise from Kondratiev's waves
theory that are of special interest. First, there is the nature of the
industrial society due to be created by the next wave of expansion at the
start of the twenty first century. Many questions surround the extent to
which it can be made compatible with green ideas. Secondly, the decline
of traditional smoke-stack industries has serious consequences for the
cities and regions that grew in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries as
coal, steel, shipbuilding and other industries expanded. Now these are
areas of devastated land, run-down housing and high unemployment,
awaiting regeneration strategies [Robson, 1988].

The processes of industrial expansion and economic growth have had
serious long-term effects on the environment generally and the planet
itself. This is the subject of Box 2. This aspect of it all is well known and
can be summarised briefly [WCED, 1987; Burrows, 1991; Porritt, 1990].
Urban and industrial expansion has led to the pollution of the air, and
waterways; and to problems over the disposal of all kinds of waste.
Economic growth has created the need for growing transport systems,
and in particular for motorways with their hunger for land. The demand
for food has increased which has encouraged the expansion of agri-
business with its reliance on the extensive use of chemical fertilisers.
Finally, growth and industrialism have led to development intruding into
admired landscapes and destroying wild places.
Pepper [1986] has shown how these criticisms have been made for
decades. There were fights in the courts in the nineteenth century
between soap manufacturers and neighbouring landowners aghast at the
effects of the air pollution and the waste products on the landscape
[Blackburn, 1989: Ch. 15]. Early naturalists like Audobon and Waterton
deplored the impact of industry on the environment. Novelists like
Thomas Hardy and D.H. Lawrence attacked the effects that industriali-
sation and machines had on people. Such thoughts were later echoed in
the writings of Bob Dylan. All these concerns were taken up in the 1980s
by green writers trying to plot the future. But for the most part these
worries were ignored. Looking back from the late 1980s, Porritt, one of
the better-known British green campaigners of the 1970s and 1980s, says
he was widely regarded as a well-meaning fruit and nut case.
The first serious questioning of the processes of economic growth came
with the Club of Rome Report in the late 1960s [Meadows et al., 1972]. It
was debated, but it was put out of reach on the top shelf in most
government offices. The Brundtland Report of 1987 [WCED] made more
impact. It was taken more seriously partly because of the news of the
Box I
From the Industrial Mmvolution
to the late twentieth century-'
population frovth; economic
Spiritual dimensions grovth; a industrial expansion
Box J Box 2
Dttr icotocr: Criticism* of induatrlaliam
Solutions bas*d on dark and Umitlesa frowth from «
Cr+en id—a *im*d at green perspective - the

radical economic and emergence ot Green Politics
social change
I
Box 9 Box t Box $ Box 13 I Bat J5
History ot Principle* tolltical \t tract ing support from Strategies for
d**p ecology underlying instttu ion ml Parlimentary change via elected
the sustainable features of the strategies to a the electorate assemblies
society sustain <ab. 0 bring Crewn
aocU ty society about
Box 10
Theoretical foundation
tor Green ideas:
wco-phllosophy
Flow chart designed to separate deep ecology ideas from shallow ecology
approaches; and to identify the dimensions for action and study that each gives
rise to.
Copyright Stephen Young, 1991
SY/CS/GPOL002
Box 4
KKHJItHISN:
light green, shallow ecology

idems based on mitigating
the effects of industrialism
and continued growth
Box 17
Cutting environmental Issues
onto political agendas at
different levels
Box 20 Box 21
international National
organisations: governments:
impact of growing impact of growing
avmreness of
BOM 29 green Issues on green Issues on . Box 30
Croups running policy-making policy-making Private sector
their o*n projects processes processes responses to
on a not'tor-profit changing group
basis and consumer
demands; and
to changed
government
attitudes
Bos 23
Unchanged, amended Unchanged, amended
and n*w policies and netr policies
Box 24
Implementation
Box 26
Politics at the local level:
impact of growing atmraneas
of gremn Issues on
policy-making process**
Box 27
Unchanged, amended
and n*w policies
damage being done to the ozone layer. This helped to focus discussion on
the planet as a fragile being. In addition, the Brundtland Report had
looked at the problems associated with industrialisation, economic
growth and development in the Third World from a global perspective.
Amongst other things the Report and subsequent discussion looked at
projected population growth; the implications of such expansion in terms
of energy and food; the danger of running out of finite resources; and the
need to protect the planet against excessive exploitation, as with the rain
forests.
The Great Divide: Deep and Shallow Ecology

After Box 2 the flow chart comes to one of the fundamental points of the
green analysis. Naess, the Norwegian philosopher, distinguished bet-
ween deep ecology and shallow ecology [1973 Devall, 1990; Dobson,
1990]. He pointed out how governments concerned about the environ-
ment tend to adopt policies to reduce industry's and society's impact on
the environment. Measures to limit pollution, to restrict car use and to
treat the disposal of sewage and other effluents are all examples. The
knub of his argument was that such approaches did not tackle the
fundamental issues because such governments were still trying to pro-
mote economic growth. For Naess this is having it both ways - trying to
promote environmental friendly policies, while carrying on with the
whole growth-oriented, car-driven, polluting jamboree.
Naess and others writing from a deep ecology, or dark green perspec-
tive argue that such tidying up, light green, cosmetic approaches do not
address the main issues. For them the only way to tackle the range of
environmental problems facing the world is to aim at radical economic
and social change. This is a huge topic, but some dimensions can be
quickly covered. For deep ecologists the moves towards centralisation
sweeping the globe are profoundly worrying. For them, the growth of
multinationals, centralised governments and bigger organisations are
moves in the wrong direction. Deep ecologists argue in favour of small
organisations following Schumacher's 'small is beautiful' approach
[1974]. For them decentralisation makes much better use of resources.
Similarly they argue for moves away from a society based on materialism
and high consumption with people being judged in terms of what they
own, to different forms of living that cater for basic needs and do not
provide us with the luxury goods to which we aspire. A final example here
is the principle of sustainable approaches. Industrialism and economic
growth use up finite resources like oil and minerals without thinking. In
the same way supplies of energy are expanded to meet whatever
industry and society demand. Deep ecologists argue we should stop

squandering energy, protect finite resources and move to ways of running
society that do not harm the planet. Renewable energy, for example,
produced from wind power and water power, does not affect the planet as
the extractive industries do.
This difference between deep and shallow ecology can be illustrated
from British transport policy. In May 1989 the Department of Transport
published forecasts estimating a growth in road traffic by 2025 of up to 142
per cent. The Department's response to this was to build more motor-
ways to keep traffic moving [Planning Bulletin, 1989]. The White Paper's
title was Roads To Prosperity. This conveys the government's thinking -
and illustrates Naess's argument. The government was in the throes of

preparing its White Paper on the Environment entitled Our Common
Inheritance [Department of the Environment 1990]. This paid lip service
to the need to protect the environment from the effect of increased traffic
and pursued some light green ideas. Nevertheless these measures were
fairly cosmetic. For the government, the priority was the opportunity to
help promote economic growth - by raising the road-building programme
from £5 billion to £12 billion. Deep ecologists would argue that this was
fundamentally the wrong approach. Faced with huge projections for
increased road traffic, the government should be investing in public
transport, improving facilities for moving freight by rail, and taking
measures - like tripling the price of petrol - to get people simply to move
around less.
Box 2 thus provides a parting of the ways. Deep ecologists' criticisms of
industrialisation and economic growth lead off to Box 3 in the flow chart.
From this there are links to other boxes explaining different aspects of
ecologism, or the deep ecology perspective. On the other hand, the light
green, shallow ecology concerns lead off in the opposite direction to Box
4. This leads to other boxes in which these dimensions can be explored.
The aim of the shallow ecology position, though, is merely to mitigate the
effects of industrialism while carrying on with policies designed to
promote economic growth. This is essentially a reformist position. The
phrase environmental reformism is used here to refer to the light green,
shallow ecology approach. Phrases based around the word conservation
are sometimes used. This approach is rejected here as it often seems to
cause confusion.
On the flow chart, Box 2 - the criticisms of growth and conventional
economics - also leads to Box 5. This is where the green parties fit in.
They are placed here, in a long thin box, symbolically torn between what
they see as their ideologically sound approach of deep ecology on the one
hand, and their having to operate in the context of environmental
reformist approaches within existing political systems on the other. Box 5

leads to another set of boxes which will be returned to later.
Deep Ecology
Box 6 is the first box on the deep ecology side of the flow chart below Box
3. This is about the history of deep ecology. The importance of this is that
some societies have pioneered ways of living that deep greens took to
with admiration. There are examples from different parts of the Earth -
the North American Indians, the tribes of the Amazon rain forests, the
crofters of the Scottish islands, and the Eskimos and Laplanders on the
fringes of the Arctic. Such peoples have been studied mainly by social
anthropologists. Judith Ennew, for example, has examined the life-style

of Hebridean crofters [1980]. They adopted diets and life-styles that were
based on whatever food and materials were available locally. These
varied according to whether they were living in forests, on open plains,
next to the sea, or on the edge of the Arctic. What they all have in
common is what deep greens would see as their respect for the environ-
ment and for the Earth itself. Their life-style was based on living from the
Earth's surpluses, without interfering with the processes of nature that
produced those surpluses.
Some argue that greens mythologise these peoples and that they are
nothing but a historical curiosity. They have either been destroyed, or
marginalised by the spread across the globe of expanding populations,
economic growth, and everything else in Box 2. On the other hand, some
greens claim that there are still lessons to learn for the twenty-first
century from the experience of peoples like those mentioned above. They
evolved life-styles that were in tune with the Earth and the seasons. The
editors would be interested to receive articles with new slants on this
whole issue.
Moving across the flow chart, Box 7 focuses on the sustainable society.
This is a shorthand phrase to describe the long-term goal of deep greens.
They have a much longer time horizon than politicians who think in terms
of the next election and possibly the one after that. Deep greens are
looking way ahead, well into the twenty-first century. The underlying
principle of the whole idea is the concept of sustainable development.
This echoes the approach adopted by the tribes discussed at Box 6 above.
The basic rule is that everyone should think about the needs of future
generations. They should behave in ways that do not pre-empt the
options of future generations. So they should avoid using up supplies of
minerals that take centuries to form underground. If they cut down
forests they should be careful to plant replacements. (This issue is dealt
with more fully below in the section on green economics.)
There is a lot of speculative writing about what the sustainable society

would look like. A number of features recur in the discussion [Porritt,
1984; Kemp and Wall, 1990; Bunyard and Morgan Grenville (ed.), 1987;
Dobson 1990]. These can be briefly summarised so there is space below to
discuss the underlying principles of the sustainable society. A fundamen-
tal aim would be to reduce consumption to save resources. What hap-
pened in the developed industrial democracies in Western Europe during
the twentieth century was that people wanted their children to emulate
the higher living standards of the better off. By the 1970s and 1980s
almost everyone wanted central heating, consumer durables, designer
clothing and a fast car. People in the old communist regimes of Eastern
Europe and in Third World countries also aspired to higher standards of

living.
Deep greens discussing the nature of the sustainable society look at this
from a different perspective. They argue that the world's resources would
not be able to support projected population levels in the manner to which
they have become accustomed. It would be necessary to provide every-
one with the basics of food, shelter, clothing and running water. Beyond
that a big discussion opens up about what we need to survive and thrive,
as distinct from things we want because others have got them. So, for
example, some would say that the drugs that go with preventative
medicine would be necessary, but the slimming industry and convenience
foods would not be.
The pattern of reduced consumption has links to our cavalier use of
energy. If consumption was reduced and there were fewer large-scale
manufacturing plants, there would be scope to reduce energy consump-
tion. This would help safeguard resources and make it possible to
reorientate the research moneys towards renewable energy sources -
wind power and solar heating, for example. Deep greens are suspicious of
technology. Though some of it is benign, they argue that spending on
defence and nuclear technology, for example, is a mis-allocation of
resources. By contrast, information technology has beneficial effects.
Another feature of the deep green sustainable society would thus be
investment in some forms of technology, but not in others.
Society would be organised on a smaller scale. There would be smaller
organisations, smaller settlements, smaller units of production and so on.
In addition, the sustainable society would have a different approach to
work. This is a complex subject but there seems to be consensus around
the idea of a more labour-intensive society, and more people working on
the land.
The point of this brief sketch of some of the features of the sustainable
society is to draw out some of the underlying principles of such a society.
It is the principles that are more important, and it is these that the editors
will be glad to receive papers on. The above discussion provides three
principles underlying such a society. First, there is the theme of de-
centralisation, of 'small is beautiful', and the need to get away from large
centralised organisations and their alienating effects. Second, there is
the need to control technology, and to judge it by what it can do for
society's basic needs. This principle would lead to resources being steered
away from defence research, towards research for socially useful
products- the technology to exploit solar heating for example [Bodington
etal., 1986]. Third, there are the ideas surrounding the notions of ecology
and sustainable development. This was identified as the main principle
underlying the whole concept of the sustainable society.

The fourth principle is the concept of bioregionalism. This is the idea of
people living in harmony with the land and the seasons. The natural
world, the local environment, then determines the political, economic
and social life of each community. This is what deep greens admire about
the Amazonian forest tribes, the North American Indians and the other
societies mentioned above in the discussion of Box 6. They evolved life-
styles that were based on what was available from nature locally - be it on
the plains, in the forests, or under the water. Their approach was based
on emphasising conservation; minimising the use of finite resources; and
respecting nature. This article has tried to avoid jargon words but
bioregionalism is central to the whole idea of what deep greens are aiming
at.
The fifth principle underlying the concept of the sustainable society is
that there should be much less movement of people and goods. The
principle of bioregionalism leads to the idea that people will develop
different diets and ways of life in different parts of the globe. Northern
Europeans will have to learn to do without oranges, for example, as they
grow naturally further south. For deep greens the problems with trade
and travel centre around the resources that transport systems lock up.
Cars, heavy goods vehicles, ships and planes all have severe knock-on
implications. Their production uses up resources; and motorways, har-
bours and airports are expensive to build. The growing use of electronics
equipment adds to capital and maintenance costs. There are other
dimensions to travel and trade, but basically deep greens look at all this
from the opposite perspective and argue that travel is a luxury. To save
resources and fulfil our basic needs, we should move people and goods
around much less.
For deep greens, an important part of the sustainable society is getting
away from the centralised hierarchical nature of existing systems of
government. Part of the aim is to rejuvenate democracy. The sixth
principle is thus promoting participatory democracy [Porritt, 1984; Spret-

nak and Capra, 1986; Kemp and Wall, 1990; Wall, 1990]. This is a huge
issue that has, of course, perplexed philosophers for centuries. The basic
point is that deep greens want to get away from a situation where people
vote every few years for governments at national and local level over
which they have no subsequent control. Deep greens want to escape from
such elective dictatorships and develop participatory systems of demo-
cracy. They argue that people should be actively involved in the processes
of setting agendas, discussing issues, and reaching decisions. Where
possible decisions should be reached on the basis of consensus rather than
through the imposition of majoritarian rule. Such approaches have the
advantage that they promote accountability as well as involving people in

the decisions that affect their lives. This is argued by such writers as
Bunyard and Morgan-Grenville [1987: Ch. 13]. This principle is closely
linked to the discussion of the issues at Box 9 below.
The seventh principle is that of egalitarianism [Porritt, 1984]. Part of
the deep green analysis is that in existing societies there is inequality and
exploitation. This is a huge subject, but there is, for example, inequality
of income, and of opportunities in housing and education. The purchas-
ing power of families and single people varies enormously. There is
exploitation at the workplace, with many forms of leisure, and in other
aspects of life in the advanced industrial democracies. From this - very
much condensed here - line of argument, deep greens deduce that
egalitarianism should be an important principle underpinning the sus-
tainable society. It gets used as an umbrella term to incorporate notions
of social justice and equality of opportunity. Measures based on this
principle would improve the living standards of not just the worse off, but
of many others too. Briefly, the argument is that such an approach would
also help improve the quality of life for all. Egalitarianism and social
justice would help to remove the causes of crime, drug dependence,
insecurity and so on, so people would lead more fulfilled lives.
Ecofeminism provides another dimension of the egalitarian principle.
There is the straightforward point that comes from the feminist analysis:
men exploit women in all sorts of ways in our existing society. This partly
reflects the education system. If the sustainable society is to be truly
egalitarian, there must be equal treatment for men and women, an end to
male domination, and women's roles should not be based on existing
stereotypes. But there are other dimensions to ecofeminism beyond this
obvious point - which is why it is set apart as an issue in Box 8.
Feminists like Susan Griffin [1978], and Leonie Caldicott and
Stephanie Leland [1983] argue that it is men who have dominated nature
- in just the same way as they have systematically dominated women
throughout history. Feminism thus takes on an ecological dimension.

Because of this, Andree Collard [79SS] and others argue that feminist
ideas about ending male oppression are linked to wider ecological
concerns about ending man's oppression of nature. Two particular issues
stand out here. First, there is the question as to whether women are closer
to nature than men. Mary Mellor [1989; 1992] quotes the four Ms as the
reasons for this-material, mystical, matriarchy and motherhood. People
take different stances over both the proposition about closeness to
nature; and the strength of the reasons for it.
A second issue is the controversy about whether men and women have
different values. This is stereotyped as men being aggressive and tough
and so on; and women being maternal and co-operative with others, for
example. This has a wider importance because of the discussion about
men developing caring, nurturing approaches in their own relationships
and in their attitudes to nature, both now and in the future. Some argue
that it is difficult to define female traits. Others feel that differences do
exist and that male values are innate. Some ecofeminists fear that men
will dominate - even in a reformed society. Many greens on the other
hand feel the issue is more straightforward. Women have no monopoly of
traits like selflessness and relating positively and in a caring way to those
around them. Everybody - both men and women - needs to develop
nurturing, caring instincts. This would help build up respect for the Earth
and for ecological approaches; as well as breaking down - in the long term
- the divisions between men and women on which domination has been
based. In this way ecofeminism is part of the wider egalitarian principle.
Box 9 looks at what the principles underlying the deep green goal of the
sustainable society lead to. It focuses on the political and institutional
features of such a society. There are a number of typologies of future
political systems. Roberston, for example, distinguishes between five
possible scenarios [1978: Ch. 1]. O'Riordan sets out four [1981:302-7].
Dobson argues that it is O'Riordan's fourth that is closest to the deep
green ideal [1990:117-29]. This is what O'Riordan dubs the 'anarchist
solution'. He argues that such a society would move away from restric-
tive, authoritarian, centralised features, towards one based on a more
permissive, democratic, egalitarian, non-hierarchial, self-reliant ap-
proach. O'Riordan calls it the anarchist solution as it would be modelled
on anarchist lines.
In a sense, though, this name has become misleading. It implies chaos
and attracts derision from critics of the deep green position. Strictly
speaking, anarchists believe society does not need government. The
phrase 'anarchist solution' encapsulates green instincts about egali-
tarianism and the importance of freedom; and constructing new systems
which reject top-down, centralised, sometimes authoritarian ap-

proaches. But it implies there should be no government. This is not what
serious greens are concluding. Since O'Riordan used that phrase, there
has been more than a decade of writing about the nature of the society
greens are aiming at. Many serious issues are still being debated. Writers
accept the need for some kind of government, and cannot be described as
anarchist. Phrases like 'decentralised, democratic, egalitarian approach'
or 'bioregional communes' would do better justice to the wealth of ideas
being discussed, and help towards their being taken more seriously.
As to the features of the decentralised, democratic egalitarian solution,
two main themes seem to recur in the writing about how government
would be organised. First, there is Porritt's concept that if there are still
roles for the government to reform, then as much as possible should be
carried out at the lower decentralised levels. He argues that as little as
possible should be left to a national government [1984:166], Issues like
land, housing, education and the recycling and disposal of waste seem
fairly straightforward candidates for the local level.
However, the second theme in the writing is the problem of stopping
functions from creeping back up to the national level. There has been
much discussion about the autonomy of decentralised, democratic,
egalitarian communities; and about their relationships both with similar
communities, and with a higher, national level of government. The
starting point is that it would be the national government's job to
establish a legislative framework to transform the seven principles into
action. The problem is that that would lead to the government having a
continuing role in the domestic sphere. A number of roles would give
government continuing regulation and co-ordinating functions - main-
taining ecological standards; dealing with different forms of pollution;
environmental planning, and organising more limited transport systems;
exercising control over the uses to which technology is put; overseeing
basic income schemes; and regulating whatever kinds of markets and
quasi-markets emerge. There are also questions about redistribution
between rich and poor; and between the well-resourced and poorly-
resourced regions of a country.
There is no space here to discuss the 'Ah but ...' responses of the
reader. It might be possible for some aspects of these and similar issues to
be delegated to lower levels of government. The point here is that once
words like intervene, regulate, plan, control, co-ordinate, and redistri-
bute start to appear, there is a danger that a strong national state will start
to emerge - like a young cuckoo in a nest, devouring resources and
displacing its rivals. The argument is that the centre would take some of
all this to itself - and keep it.
A variation on this argument is the point that it might be possible to

justify a strong state on a temporary basis - to establish the new order and
affect the transformation. This is comparable to some New Right
theorists, who argue that there is a need for a stronger state in the short
term, to re-establish a society based on markets allocating resources
[Dunleavy and O'Leary, 1987: Ch. 3]. Intervention and some forms of
regulation are alien to such theorists. But they accept the short-term
necessity of using such instruments of power, because of the extent to
which collectivist approaches are embedded in contemporary societies.
The concept of a strong state may be anathema, but it is needed to
construct the bridge to take us to the new order. A similar argument is put
by some greens - that a strong state is needed in the short term. Only then
will it be possible to overcome the deeply-rooted attitudes that govern
our economic, political and social systems. Then it will be possible to
construct a sustainable society, based on the seven principles outlined
above - including the one about decentralisation.
These are but two of the issues that detailed discussion of Box 9 lead to.
There are others - different theorists' treatment of human nature has not
been mentioned, for example. There is much yet to be debated in this
journal and elsewhere about the inter-linked issues in Boxes 7, 8 and 9.
The seven principles are just one person's interpretation of the writing.
There are other approaches to this. The German Green Party, for
example, chose four 'pillars' for its ideal society - ecology, social respon-
sibility, non-violence, and grassroots democracy. Many would insist on
non-violence as a principle.
One particular issue that arises from Boxes 7, 8 and 9 is the extent to
which socialism and deep ecology have common features. This topic has
attracted a lot of attention both from academics and from activists on the
left [Porritt and Winner, 1988; Boddy and Fudge, 1984; Wainwright,
1987; Hain, 1983; Weston, 1986]. The debate is fuelled by socialists' alarm
that the greens are attracting support from people who are rejecting
socialism [Tatchell, 1990]. Socialism and deep ecology have some
features in common. For example, both creeds would claim egali-
tarianism, participatory democracy, and the need to control technology
as principles that are central to their ideologies. By stressing basic needs-
as distinct from wants - each approach would seek to re-distribute
resources in a more egalitarian way. In addition, some claim that bio-
regionalism and sustainable development are linked to notions about the
common ownership of land. There are many issues that await further
analysis. Two particular differences emerge over principles and pro-
grammes.
To begin with, deep greens strongly support decentralisation.
Socialists are somewhat ambivalent on this, however. Some favour using

the power of the state, and are thus sympathetic to centralisation -
although they would use it in a less hierarchial, more sympathetic way.
On the other hand other socialists favour decentralisation, arguing that
twentieth-century attempts at socialism have failed because of their
adherence to centralisation, and to systems of democracy that are demo-
cratic in theory, but not in practice. Socialists also taunt deep greens
about the arguments set out above - that in practice the sustainable
society would contain strong elements of centralisation elbowing out the
principle of decentralisation.
The second main difference is their attitudes to economic growth, and
to the planet and the environment. Socialists fit into the environmental
reformist side of the chart because - in broad terms - they favour
continuing economic growth and rising standards of living. Their ap-
proach to the environment may be based on acknowledgement of the
need for sustainable approaches to development. But it remains a
relationship based on exploitation. By contrast, deep greens aim to move
in the opposite direction from Box 2 - away from materialism and
economic growth, towards purer conceptions of ecology and bio-
regionalism. Their different approaches to economic growth reflect the
fact that they have different attitudes to the cause of the planet's current
plight.
For socialists, the real cause of the problem is the capitalist system. If
that is put right, industrialised society can continue. Yet for deep greens,
the fundamental issue is industrialism itself. Thus deep ecologists pro-
pose - in the sustainable society - more radical change than socialists do.
After the principles and the features of the sustainable society, the next
box examines the foundations on which green ideas are based. Box 10
looks at ecophilosphy. The essential point about philosophy is that it
provides the basis for the way society is organised. It is about the search
for knowledge and for sets of belief that guide and govern existence.
Spretnak and Capra [1986]; Johnson [1991: 250-53]; and others argue
that it will be impossible to change our existing society unless we rethink
the very foundations on which contemporary politics, economics,
religion and culture are based. This has led to a substantial literature on
the roots of late twentieth-century philosophy in industrialised societies
and on how a new philosophy might be developed. In particular the deep
green perspective is discussed in terms of its relationship to the scientific
revolution of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and to the
Enlightenment of the eighteenth century.
In searching for new approaches theorists have been attracted to the
Gaia hypothesis developed by Lovelock [1979; 1989]; and Allaby
[I9S9]. Briefly, this is the concept that all forms of life - the atmosphere,
the oceans and all the rest - interact with each other and depend on each
other in an enormous and complex system. In addition, the planet Earth
has evolved self-regulating mechanisms. In this sense it operates just like
a domestic fridge. There are two particular points that attract greens to
the Gaian hypothesis. First it emphasises that people are just one of many
species on Earth. For greens this means that humans are part of nature,
and not above it and able to exploit it. Second, it emphasises the inter-
dependence of all plant and animal systems. This is part of the whole
theory of ecology.
Box 10 gives rise to a number of debates. Two can be mentioned here as
illustrations [Dobson, 1990: Ch. 2], This is the controversy about the
rights, not just of animals, but of other non-human things like trees and
mountains, and wilderness areas in general. If the Earth is one giant
system, and everthing is dependent on everything else, then we harm
ourselves if we harm nature. Another issue is the attitudes of humans
towards nature. There is much debate about the extent to which humans
can exploit nature and develop instrumental attitudes towards it - if they
are just one amongst millions of species, all dependent on each other.
Dobson argues there is sometimes a gulf between the philosophical
debates and the practice of deep greens [1990: 68],
Box 11 covers the spiritual side of deep ecology. Deep greens envisage
that the sustainable society will be much more spiritually fulfilling for
individuals than our existing societies. People would move away from
materialism and focus on neglected aspects of their lives. Spirituality has
a quasi-religious dimension. It takes many forms. There are different
ways of coming to an understanding of yourself and for inducing inner
serenity. Examples include meditation; hand-milking a cow with your
head against a warm flank; communing with the wild; or concentrating on
enjoying digging the earth when gardening. Walking in a forest can be a
comparable experience to that of a Christian worshipping in a cathedral,
because of the wonder at what time and evolution have created. There is
also an important ink to the Gaia hypothesis. The Earth is such an
immensely complex organism that it induces our respect. For deep
ecologists, the spiritual side is thus a profoundly important part of each
individual's life. Its form varies from person to person. Unlike Marxism,
deep ecology is tolerant of variety.
Environmental Politics will not be in the business of publishing poetry
or accounts of trips into the wilderness. But Box 11 is included here for
the sake of completeness. The spiritual side is an integral part of the
concept of deep ecology as a whole. In the meantime, some kind of
spiritualism becomes an important aspect of life in our contemporary
society for those pioneering green styles of living. Bahro [1986], Devall
[1990], and Sessions and Devall [1985] are all examples of people who
have written about Box 11 from different perspectives.
Moving on to Box 12, we come to one of the most controversial
questions of all - strategies to bring about change. The deep ecology goal
of the sustainable society could come about as a result of initiatives taken
by elected governments dominating their legislatures and promoting
change in a top-down way. This possibility is discussed below at Box 15.
The forms here are on change coming from the bottom upwards, as a
result of pressures from society - from people and groups acting indepen-
dently of government. Numerous books and articles were published in
the 1980s and early 1990s discussing different aspects of this theme
[Porritt and Winner, 1988; Irvine and Ponton, 1988; Button, 1990; Icke,
1990]. They sketch out green life-styles and argue for different strategies.
Dobson very usefully draws this writing together under three headings
[7990:139-69]. The overall strategy here is to reject the parliamentary
road to change, with its emphasis on centralisation and top-down initia-
tives. Instead, this strategy relies on pioneering approaches which act as
examples to other people. As a result, they are copied, and a momentum
for change is generated. Landslides can produce great change, but they
start with small falls of rock.
Dobson's first type of extra-parliamentary strategy is changed life-
styles [1990: 139-45]. The argument here is that individuals have an
impact from their own small decisions. The British government's 1990
white paper on the environment - This Common Inheritance - provides a
useful set of headings here [Department of the Environment, 1990:
268-9]. Acting as householders, for example, people can reduce their
energy consumption. As travellers, they can drive more slowly, fit
catalytic converters to their cars, and use public transport more often. As
shoppers, individuals can reject over-packaged, environmentally damag-
ing articles; and generate demand for environmentally benign goods. As
consumers, people can reduce the need for new waste tips by reducing
what they throw out. This can be done by exploiting opportunities for
recycling all kinds of materials. As gardeners, individuals can use organic
methods, plant trees and encourage wildlife by contributing to wildlife
corridors. As good neighbours, people can take their litter home. As
investors, people can complain to companies they hold shares in about
their environmental practices, and pursue ethical options. As parents,
people can teach their young children about the environment - as well as
benefiting themselves from what their children learn at school.
Dobson links his analysis of life-styles to the issues discussed above at
Box 12 on the spiritual dimensions. He argues strongly that 'the changes
that need to take place are too profound to be dealt with in the political
arena,' [1990:143]. What he means here is that if widespread resistance to
green ideas is to be overcome, there will have to be fundamental changes
in attitudes and values amongst the population at large. This will have to
take place in villages and neighbourhoods everywhere, and not just in
parliaments.
New communities provide Dobson's second extra-parliamentary
strategy [1990:145-52]. His argument is that self-sufficient communities
that practice some or all of the principles of deep ecology can evolve into
communes of the type described above at Box 9. In the longer run, links
can then be developed between them, so that federal structures can
emerge [Johnson, 1991: 256]. The point here is that independent com-
munes are pioneering new approaches. They are moving towards inde-
pendence and self-reliance, even if they are not self-sufficient. Even more
importantly, they are challenging prevailing values in our centralised,
industrialised, materialist, growth-oriented society.
Dobson's third extra-parliamentary strategy is to use class-based ap-
proaches to bring about change [1990:152-69]. The argument here is that
deep greens might be able to identify a group or a class that is relatively
disengaged from society and sympathetic to green views. Such people
could then be used to promote change because their 'immediate interests
lie in living the green life' [1990:154]. Dobson discusses a range of writers
who argue that the middle classes or the unemployed or other groups
might become the agents of social change. He draws both from writers
like Bahro [7952] and Frankel [1987] and from their analysis of others,
like Marx and Habermass - adding it all to his own ideas. One of the
recurring points in this and similar discussions is the way in which it
remains in the interests of some classes and groups to resist change.
Devall [1990:89-97] discusses the role of trained middle-class experts
like city planners and conservation biologists. They can promote deep
green ideas and develop links with campaigning environmentalists. But
they have to remain silent in public. He examines the role they can play.
Some of the issues discussed earlier recur here. Socialists and deep
ecologists differ over strategies for change, as they do with the other
issues outlined above at Box 9. Box 8 relates to this, as some ecologists
claim that deep ecologists need to develop links with the womens'
movement to promote change.
These three strategies cater for the longer term. A fourth strategy
needs to be added in to cover ways in which greens can campaign in the
shorter term within the existing political system [Bunyard and Morgan-
Grenville, 1987]. There are a number of alternatives. To start with there is
lobbying international bodies like the World Bank to try to make them
more aware of the environmental dimensions of their activities. Next

there is lobbying governmental bodies at central and local levels to
change existing policies, or to resist new development schemes like a
motorway or a housing project. The third option is to pressure companies
on such issues as pollution. Fourth, there is the possibility of using the
courts to bring cases against polluters. The British chemicals company
Albright and Wilson were fined £2,000 in 1991 and ordered to pay
Greenpeace's costs of about £10,000 for illegally polluting the Irish Sea.
Finally, there is the tactic of direct action. This is the approach adopted by
animal rights groups, and by the American organisation, Earth First. The
latter uses direct action whilst harassing firms damaging wilderness areas.
It can be objected that this fourth campaigning strategy is really part of

environmental reformism. This is true to some extent. But it is brought in
here as it is part of the process of changing attitudes. The deep green
argument is that the sustainable society will only come about if people
believe it is in their interests to support change. Deep greens believe that
campaigning within the political system will generate further support in
the way that they hope that changed life-styles and new communities will.
Campaigning can thus claim to be a fourth strategy to help bring about
long-term change as it has a wider educational role.
Although there is a lot of writing about the issues in Box 12, it is widely
agreed that this is one of the weakest parts of the deep green analysis.
Greens have a vision of what they are aiming at, but so far there has only
been limited thinking about how to bring it all about. The editors of
Environmental Politics will be glad to receive articles that relate to these
issues. There is scope for both theoretical writing and hard empirical
analysis of different strategies - of the impact of consumer power, for
example.
Green Parties
Moving back to Box 5, there is a set of boxes about green parties. In Box 5
itself, the first issue is the question of what green parties actually stand
for. Their ideas are based on the deep ecology analysis, on the principles
underlying the sustainable society. These were outlined at Box 7 above.
However, the difficulty that green parties face in campaigning at election
time is that they have to operate in a world of environmental reformism.
Green parties are torn between their principles, and the electorate's
perceptions of what can be done. Green parties want to change the
system fundamentally. But, in practice, they are left suggesting improve-
ments to the existing system. As a result of this dilemma, there is a debate
about the extent to which they have - at this stage - a distinctive ideology
that challenges those of other parties [Scott, 1990: Ch. 4].
Green parties were established in many countries in the 1970s and

1980s [Muller-Rommell, 1989; Rudig, 1990b]. The first green MP was
elected in Switzerland in 1979. Proportional representation has given
green parties a presence in a number of elected assemblies in Europe,
despite their having less than ten per cent of the vote. But in countries like
France and Britain, the electoral systems have worked against the
election of green MPs. In cases like Greece, the green vote has stayed
very low. In Spain it has stayed very low and there are competing green
parties.
The issues surrounding the successes and failures of green parties at the
ballot box are dealt with in Box 13. This focuses on where they draw their
electoral support from. Inglehart [1977] and others have written exten-
sively about this in a comparative way, and in terms of the new social
movements [Dalton and Kuechler, 1990; Scott, 1990]. This analysis shows
that the greens tend to draw their support from younger voters amongst
the better-educated urban middle classes. This writing includes the
greens as one of the new social movements. But it ranges much wider than
support for green parties as it analyses other social movements. For
example, it examines the role of the women's and peace movements, and
their impact on elections and political processes. There is a separate body
of writing that focuses explicitly on where the greens draw their electoral
support from - both in terms of occupation and geographical areas
[Midler-Rommel, 1989]. The article in this issue of Environmental
Politics on Czechoslovakia is representative of this strand of the litera-
ture.
The next box covers the internal decision-making processes within the
green parties. The green mission is to change what is wrong with society.
This applies to political parties as well as to other aspects of society.
Those establishing green parties wanted to get away from centralised,
hierarchical political parties. As a result, they set out to create de-
centralised party structures with great emphasis on grassroots democracy
[Parkin, 1988; Kitschelt, 1989]. The aim here is that members should have
a more effective voice from the traditional political parties where elites
dominate. Where there have been serious disagreements within green
parties, these structures have led to protracted arguments.
The Fundi-Realo dispute provides a clear example. This relates to
green parties' perennial dilemma. Should they stay loyal to their underly-
ing principles as defined at Box 7, or should they become more prag-
matic? The fundamentalists argue that there is no point being involved in
politics unless they stay loyal to their basic ideas. The realists on the other
hand, claim that this is idealistic, that greens have to operate in the real
world, and there is no option but to try to improve existing government
policies. The fundamentalists abhor compromise. The realists say that

this is all that is possible as a first step. Doherty's article in this issue deals
with the role of the internal decision-making processes in four European
green parties in the context of these arguments.
Box 15 is here for those green parties that get representatives elected.
Once in a parliament, green MPs face a dilemma over the extent to which
they should compromise their principles; and what to aim for. If there are
just a few green MPs there are likely - as in the German Bundestag
between 1983 and 1990 - to be internal divisions over tactics. But at the
state level in West Germany, and in Tasmania, the Fundi-Realo conflict
reared its head in earnest. There, green MPs held the balance of power
and were given office in coalition situations. They thus got their hands on
the levers of power. This raised a further set of questions about how they
should confront the machinery of the state which, of course, operated on
the basis of a completely different set of assumptions and principles from
those underpinning the deep green analysis.
There has been quite a lot of writing about the issues in Box 15 in the
context of the West German experience [Bahro, 1986; Capra and Spret-
nak, 1986; Hulsberg, 1988]. Green representatives are also getting
elected onto city councils and local government bodies. The same issues
all recur at that level too.
In general terms, the part of the flow chart covered by Boxes 5 and
13-15 is quite fully covered compared to many other boxes. But even here
the literature is a little patchy. There was a lot of writing about the
German Greens' experience in the late 1980s. But time moves on. Little
has been written about how the issues raised in Box 15 apply at the local
level for example. Environmental Politics will be glad to receive articles
that aim to chart the ups and downs of green parties and green move-
ments, and to analyse their experiences in Boxes 5 and 13-15. The editors
will be particularly interested in articles that examine these issues in the
context of all the changes in Eastern Europe.
Environmental Reformism
After the green parties, the flow chart moves on to environmental

reformism. The differences between deep ecology and shallow ecology
were discussed earlier when Boxes 3 and 4 were analysed. The shallow
ecology, or environmental reformist approaches try to reconcile con-
tinued economic growth with not harming the planet. They are based on
the idea that it is possible to carry on with economic expansion, con-
sumerism, industrialism and all the rest, while reducing the impact of
such economic activity on the environment. This strategy can be pursued
by putting catalytic converters on cars, inserting scrubbers into power
station chimneys, and investing in equipment to render sewage, industrial
effluents and other liquid wastes harmless. The argument is that such
'pipe-end' solutions can reduce the impact of humans on the environ-
ment to the point where no irreversible or lasting damage is done to the
planet.
Box 4 provides the starting point for a whole series of boxes exploring
the environmental reformist theme. They look at different aspects of how
companies, governments, groups and others have responded to rising
concern about the environment during the 1970s, 1980s, and early 1990s.
In this section of the article 'green and environmental issues' is used to
cover a range of topics - pollution of air, water and land; waste disposal;
energy; the green responsibilities of private companies; transport; food
and agriculture; forestry; wildlife; and the role of education in environ-
mental improvement.
The first dimension of this side of the flow chart that needs exploring is
the role played by the scientific community. This is separated out in Box
16. The central point here is that it has often been scientists who have
alerted politicians and/or the public to the harmful environmental effects
of industrial and other processes. Rudig, for example [1990a: Ch. 3], has
clearly shown how movements opposed to civil nuclear power pro-
grammes relied in important ways on information coming from scientists.
Some scientists had become disenchanted while working in the nuclear
industry in countries like the United States. Their worries about the
safety aspects led to them to the media. They voiced their concerns in
public, frequently leaving the industry. Their expert information formed
an essential part of the anti-nuclear movement's arguments against
government programmes. Such scientific contributions helped some anti-
nuclear movements to gain credibility and further support.
There are other circumstances in which scientists play an important
role. First there are the situations where they continue to operate as
advisers in government without becoming whistle-blowers. They carry on
working inside the system, persuading politicians and officials to change
their approaches on the basis of scientific evidence. An example here is
the way in which some of the food scares of the late 1980s led to tightened
government regulations. Finally, there are many circumstances where
scientists operate in the open, either linked to, or formally outside
government. Their reports go into the public domain. An example here is
the hole in the ozone layer identified by scientists in the late 1980s
[Burrows et al. 1991:87-90; 102-3]. There is plenty of scope for studies of
the roles of scientists on green issues - whether as whistle-blowers, as

government advisors, or as investigators operating in public.
Moving on, Box 17 focuses on the agenda-setting processes. There are
different agendas. There is the public agenda - the issues that are being
discussed in the media. These are especially important at election times.
There are the agendas of different actors in political systems - specific
government agencies, elected local governments, international bodies
like the European Commission and the International Monetary Fund
(IMF), and so on. The agendas of major private sector companies and
different kinds of groups also have a bearing as they are trying to
influence political agendas at different levels. Probably the most impor-
tant of these agendas are those of the national governments. Here it is

necessary to distinguish between the agendas that governments acknow-
ledge in public, and their hidden agendas which are more subtle and
revealing in terms of their long-term intentions.
Solesbury [2976] is one of several writers who have looked at agenda-
setting procedures. He argues that issues have to go through three stages.
First, they have to command attention, as via a pressure group report.
Next they have to acquire legitimacy by, for example, being examined by
an official government committee. If it passes through the second stage
an issue is taken seriously by government. Only then does it reach the
third stage and invoke action by government. Action can range from
rearranging the machinery, through experiments on limited budgets, to
radical new initiatives. One particular response was identified by
Bachrach and Baratz - non-decisions. In their study of air pollution in the
United States they elaborated this process [1970]. They argue that issues
that do not tie in with the prevailing values of decision-makers fail to
invoke action. A decision is taken to ignore the issue - in effect, a non-
decision.
There is plenty of scope for further writing to analyse how environmen-
tal issues reach - or fail to reach - political agendas at all levels of
government. It can be done comparatively focusing on the values of
decision-makers. Alternatively it can be done by focusing on individual
countries. One dimension of this is pushed into a separate box on the
flowchart: Box 18 relates to the agendas of opposition parties. Thus
Britain's Labour Party and West Germany's Socialist Party both
responded to electoral pressures in the late 1980s and changed their own
environmental agendas. They tried to adopt green issues to prevent any
haemorrhaging of support to rival parties.
With the growth of public interest in environmental issues during the
1970s, and especially the 1980s, many groups were active on a variety of
environmental issues. There were local single issue protest groups,
economic groups, national landscape conservation groups, wildlife pro-

tection groups and so on. Their role in trying to get green issues on to
political agendas at all levels of government is accommodated in Box 17.
But the advent of environmental politics has thrown up a less conven-
tional kind of organisation that is accommodated in Box 19. The World
Wide Fund for Nature is a non-governmental agency that operates across
the globe. It has two main roles. It runs conservation projects in a number
of different countries. In addition it is involved in lobbying national
governments and international agencies. It has links to Box 2 as its
arguments are based on the criticisms of economic growth and in-
dustrialism that were discussed above. It also has links to Box 17 as it is
involved in pushing environmental issues onto political agendas. Such

high profile organisations as Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth (FoE)
also come into Box 19. They have something in common with more
conventional pressure groups covered in Box 17. But they need to be
separated out. They are pushing deep ecology ideas; operating on a world
wide basis; specialising in environmental issues; and using a variety of
surveying and direct action tactics to promote their ideas. Like the green
parties they are caught between the deep green analysis and having to
compromise with governments' environmental reformism. The writing
on the type of organisation that fits into Box 19 seems brief [Starke, 1990:
84-7]; or limited to biographical and fairly polemical accounts [McTag-
gart, 1978]. There is scope for analysing their roles and wider significance.
Responses at Different Government Levels

Next the flow chart looks at governmental responses to green and
environmental issues once they have reached political agendas. It distin-
guishes between three levels of government. First, there is the inter-
national level. This includes the European Commission and the United
Nations, as well as organisations like the World Bank. Another example
that needs to be included is the process of governments coming together
to sign treaties. The signatories to the Montreal Protocol of 1989 agreed
to limit the production of CFCs [de la Court, 1990: 75]. The second level
of government distinguished in the flow chart is that of the nation-state.
This is where most initiatives are being taken.
Below that there is the local level. In the industrialised world to be
covered by Environmental Politics local government takes many forms.
Some political systems allow quite a lot of autonomy to these lower levels
- as with the German Lander and the American states for example. There
is a range of regional assemblies, two-tier systems and cities with strong or
weak mayoral systems. At the parish or commune level small councils
lack the powers and finance to have much scope for action on green
issues. But it is striking how much is being done on environmental issues
at the local level. Even in Britain, with its centralised system, councils
have found they have considerable scope for initiative [AMA, 1989].
Sheffield has made a name for itself as 'recycling city', and there has been
a rush of ecological plans and environmental audits [Young, 1991]. Here,
and where cities have more autonomy in other political systems, there is a
lot waiting to be studied.
The flow chart has been constructed so that at each level of government
there are three boxes. These cover developments in policy-making
processes; the nature of the policies being adopted; and problems over
implementation.
Box 20 focuses on the policy-making processes at the international
level. One of the features of the 1980s has been the growing confidence
and involvement of international organisations like the European Com-
mission on environmental issues and a greater willingness of governments
to work together [Johnson and Corcelle, 1989; Haigh, 1990; Freestone,
1991]. This has been largely because governments have begun to realise
that problems like polluted rivers draining into the sea, acid rain, and the
depletion of the ozone layer are too big for nation-states to handle by
themselves. As this sphere of activity expands there will be increasing
scope for research on the policy-making processes at the international
level - as for example in the roles of the European Parliament, the
European Commission and the Council of Ministers. The first special
issue of Environmental Politics - to be published in December 1992 - will
be on this whole area. The processes through which central governments
lobby international organisations is apparent in other fora too. One of the
Profiles in this issue describes the intricate manoeuvrings that preceded
the 1991 Antarctica Treaty. The aim of this treaty is to try to prevent
national governments from damaging or exploiting that continent any
further - so that it is left as a wilderness.
There is a strong link between Boxes 20 and 21. Treaty obligations and
directives from the European Commission frequently have a strong
impact on policy-making processes at the national level. In some policy
spheres, the evidence suggests that long-established relationships bet-
ween producer groups and government departments and agencies have
begun to fragment. In the case of agriculture in the member-states of the
Community, for example, policy-making has long been dominated by the
European Commission, civil servants and farming and other producer
groups. However, Ward [1990] has shown how, in the British case at
least, this has begun to break down. The need to cut back on agricultural
subsidies because of the surpluses produced under the Common Agri-
cultural Policy led to a reappraisal. Environmental groups, concerned

about the impact of modern farming on the landscape, were able to force
their way into what had previously been a closed policy-making system.
In some cases, national governments have resisted directives [Hill et al.,
1989].
There is even more scope to look at the impact of green issues on
policy-making processes in Eastern Europe. There, following the col-
lapse of communism, the new governments have had to reassess priorities
in terms of policies and budgets. Greens were an important part of the
protest movements that toppled these governments [Waller, 1989]. But
the nature and extent of green influence on the policy-making processes -
especially given the need to protect jobs - has yet to be fully investigated.
The concern of Boxes 22 and 23 is with the nature of the policies
adopted at the international and national levels. Solesbury's model of
agenda-setting was outlined above under Box 17. These two boxes are
concerned with the third and final stage of this agenda process. Once
issues have attracted attention, and acquired legitimacy, then govern-
ments have to decide how they will act. Solesbury outlines a range of
possible responses varying from no change to bold new initiatives. An
example of carrying on as before, despite protests from environmen-
talists, would be the French government's continuing with its nuclear
power programme [Rudig, 1990a]. The Dutch Environmental Plan - the
subject of another article in this issue - is an example of a new initiative
designed to leave protesters speechless. Two other common responses in
the environmental field are to reorganise the administrative machinery,
and to fund experiments. O'Riordan and Weale [1989] have unravelled
the complexities of amalgamating anti-pollution agencies and giving
them an enhanced role. A number of governments have experimented
with renewable sources of energy to try to discover the potential of
electricity generated by wind, water and solar power.
Readers will, of course, have been thinking whilst reading the last few
paragraphs that the crucial point is not the policy that is made, but the
extent to which it can be implemented. Moving back to the flow chart,
this point is accommodated in Boxes 24 and 25. It is a commonplace that
implementation processes can undermine policies - as with one early
attempt to keep traffic out of Athens. The scheme was based on the idea
that cars with even numbers would drive in every other day, whilst those
with odd numbers would be allowed in on alternate days. The policy
collapsed as car-owners 'acquired' both odd and even number plates.
Those researching green politics will need to study the processes by which
the policies of national governments and international organisations are
implemented to see how effective they are. Kraft and Vig [1984], Vogel
[79S6] and Rose [2990] examine a number of the problems that have
emerged. This is another key area where the editors will especially
welcome submissions. A start into this literature can be made via Burch
and Wood [1990: Ch. 7].
The next three boxes focus on the local level. A mix of analytical and
prescriptive writing is starting to emerge on this aspect of green politics
[Nicholson-Lloyd, 1987; AMA, 1989; and Elkin et al., 1991]. Box 26
focuses on policy-making processes. There are questions here about the
greening of established political parties; and about the impact of newly
elected green party representatives. By 1990 in Sweden, for example,
greens had been elected on to 90 per cent of the local councils and held the
balance of power in 40 out of 284 of them. Box 27 examines the policies

being adopted by locally elected bodies. Box 28 looks at implementation
problems at this level. There is plenty of scope for studies that relate to
Boxes 26, 27 and 28. Some argue that there is more opportunity for
governments to respond quickly on green initiatives at the local level,
rather than at the national level. The editors will be glad to receive
articles assessing local approaches - especially on a comparative basis.
Responses Outside the Public Sector

In the 1980s, cities faced increasingly severe resource constraints. One of
the commonly adopted tactics was to work with local groups and to
encourage them to run their own projects. On their side, many local
groups were moving towards this approach because they had become
disillusioned with the ability of locally-elected bodies to deliver services.
As a result of these two pressures, growing numbers of groups developed
their own projects to meet their local needs. Many such schemes were
based in urban neighbourhoods and in villages. Their essential feature
was that they operated on a not-for-profit basis. They covered a wide
range of issues - low-cost housing, recreation facilities, training, com-
munity enterprises, the arts, museums and interpretation centres. The
concept of the all-purpose community centre became increasingly com-
mon during the 1980s. Such centres can be run by local people to meet
local needs - for ethnic groups, for example, or for young people or the
elderly [Young, 1992].
This appears a widespread development in developed industrial demo-
cracies. It is significant in terms of green politics in two ways. First, this
kind of not-for-profit organisation often focuses on green issues. For
example, they organise recycling schemes, provide community transport
facilities and carry out a variety of environmental improvement and
wildlife projects. Some organisations operate in similar ways at the

national level. The second interesting point is that these not-for-profit
organisations are involved in decentralisation, in the whole process of
taking the state apart. There is an important link here back to Box 12.
These not-for-profit organisations appear to be plugged into environ-
mental reformism. But they also have features in common with the
communities pioneering new approaches and splitting themselves off
from the state. In that context they become one of Dobson's extra-
parliamentary strategies to bring about the sustainable society. Articles
on this whole issue will be of special interest. This is a poorly developed
part of the literature.
Box 28 on the implementation of national government policy leads

straight to Box 30 on the role of the private sector. Much of what
governments do in the sphere of green politics is aimed at private
companies. A common example is policies to limit pollution by imposing
taxes or controls on firms [Conrad and Kronner, 1989; Rose, 1990]. All
over the world, companies of all sizes have been reassessing their
responsibilities to the environment in the light of the changed political
climate outlined earlier at Box 4 [Fogarty and Christie, 1990]. Apart from
pressures from governments, there have been pressures from groups and
from consumers. Many firms have conducted internal environmental
audits to examine their overall impact on the environment. There is
enormous scope for studies of the response of companies to growing
public awareness of environmental issues. The next section deals with a
further aspect of private sector involvement in green politics.
Green Economics
There are economic dimensions to the discussion running all through the
flowchart. It seems clearer to deal with these issues in one place, rather
than leave them scattered and unrelated to each other. Economics gets
drawn into any discussion of green politics because development has an
impact on the environment. There are many ways in which this can
happen. They range from an industrial works that pollutes a river, to a
motorway that spoils the view from a mountain.
In a market economy, market forces allocate resources of land, labour
and capital. In the private sector, companies make decisions about
investment projects. In the public sector, decision-makers decide where
infrastructure schemes and other developments will go. They reach
decisions on the basis of assessing the costs and benefits of the project. In
a state-run economy, decisions are also made on the basis of the cost of
the development and the resources it uses. But these conventional

economic approaches do not put a value on the environment. Land has to
be paid for, but the rest of the environment is regarded as a free resource
that can be exploited. For most of the last 20 years if a factory discharged
noxious gases into the atmosphere, no account was taken of the cost of
clearing that up. Conventional economics ignores the value of what is
being destroyed. Some economists - like Pigou for example - have
questioned this aspect of economics in the past. But they were largely
ignored. However, one result of green issues climbing up political
agendas has been a wider questionning of this dimension of conventional
economics. This is clearly summed up by Pearce: 'The environment has
been used to excess' [1989: 7].

This analysis attracted considerable attention during the 1980s. Two
particular points can be mentioned in the context of environmental
reformist approaches. The first is the idea of trying to refine cost-benefit
analysis (CBA). It has been criticised in the past for its inability to include
environmental costs. For example, it is possible to calculate the safety
benefits of a new motorway and to put a value on that. But it is much more
difficult to put a value on an important wildlife site with unusual flora that
lies in its path. Environmentalists also argue that this is misguided as it is
impossible to put a monetary value on a site that has taken millions of
years to evolve. Nevertheless, extensive efforts are being made to refine
CBA as a tool to aid decision-making [Barde and Pearce, 1991]. Some
governments have published detailed handbooks designed to give greater
consideration to environmental issues during the decision-making pro-
cess [Department of the Environment, 1991].
A second approach has focussed on developing policies to limit pollu-
tion. Pearce distinguishes between two policy instruments [1989: Ch. 7;
1991; 1-9]. First, there is the 'command-and-controP approach. This is
quite simple. The regulatory agency sets standards of permitted pollution
levels, and enforces them. Second, there are various policy instruments
that aim to exploit market mechanisms. If there is a tax on emissions and
discharges, there is an incentive for the polluting company to develop
more effective controls. If there is an emissions tax, the cost gets passed to
the consumer and the price goes up. The consumer will shop elsewhere.
The company is thus encouraged to reduce its own pollution.
Another aspect of green economics is the concept of sustainable
development. Pearce lists 25 definitions of this [1989: 173-85]. The
Brundtland Commission provides a simple definition which can be used
to explain the point. It sees sustainable development as 'development
that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of
future generations to meet their own needs' [WCED, 1987:43]. (This is
quite separate from the concept of the sustainable society that was
discussed earlier at Boxes 7 and 9. The sustainable society is the term used
there to describe the kind of society that deep ecologists are aiming for in
the future.) The idea of sustainable development is that existing genera-
tions should not act in such a way as to close off options for future
generations. This can be done by leaving future generations extra wealth
to cope with the consequences of what existing generations have done to
the planet. Alternatively, current generations can focus on environmen-
tal wealth - soil and forests, wildlife and water - and pass on as much as
they have inherited [Pearce, 1989: 3], Pearce links the concept of sus-
tainable development to the point outlined above about CBA. He argues
for integrating the costs of preventing environmental damage into the

processes of appraising the costs of a new development. This would make
it possible to link the costs of development to an overall strategy on
sustainable development [1989: Ch. 5].
Pearce has also written about applying sustainable development ideas
to the world economy [1991]. Some of this - overseas aid for example - is
beyond the scope of this journal. But the editors will be interested to
receive articles on other aspects of the international situation - global
warming and the global commons for example. At the other end of the
spectrum, Elkins et al. [1991] have developed notions of 'the sustainable
city'.
Deep ecologists look at green economics from a different perspective.
They would see some of the above ideas as an improvement, but
nevertheless as environmentally reformist. The language of the econo-
mists and the politicians is still about exploiting the planet's resources.
The aim is still to promote economic growth. For deep greens, there are
questions about how the economy would be organised in the sustainable
society; and about the transition to that economy [The Ecologist, 1972;
Porritt, 1984: Ch. 10; Robertson, 1991].
Environmental Politics is not an economics journal, and it does not aim
to publish articles on economics. But it will have a role in distilling the
ideas associated with green economics and exposing them to a wider
critical audience. The editors will always be delighted to receive articles
that move away from abstract economic theory and relate the new
economic thinking to contemporary problems, and to the concept of the
sustainable society.
Conclusions
The main aim of this article has been to convey the scope of what
Environmental Politics will cover. Inevitably some will find that the flow
chart approach oversimplifies and tries to divide up complex interrelated

subjects. Obviously, articles arguing for different overall approaches
would be welcome. However, the flow chart does identify the three main
areas Environmental Politics aims to focus on. First, there are the
theoretical debates that are linked to Box 3 on the deep ecology side.
These dimensions evolve around the nature and features of the deep
green goal of the sustainable society. Second, there are the processes at
work around Box 5 and the emergence of green parties.
However, it is the different aspects of the environmental reformism
side of the flow chart that offer the greatest potential for articles and for
research on green issues generally. Box 4 leads off in a variety of
directions. This part of the flow chart tries to identify the different
dimensions of governmental responses to pressures from environmental
lobbies. These range from the local level through the level of the nation
state to inter-governmental co-operation.
A variety of political science perspectives can be used to explore the
environmental reformism side of the chart and the policy areas discussed
above. There is a lot of scope - as governments begin to change their
approaches - for studies of the making and implementing of policy. One
particular aspect of this is the growing influence of environmental
pressure groups in some spheres of policy. It will be interesting to monitor
the extent to which the balance between competing groups changes
during the 1990s. Another big topic is the effectiveness of policies on
environmental and green issues. An example here is the impact of
attempts to use green economic instruments of the kind outlined above.
Next, environmental reformist approaches are likely to lead to the state
expanding some of its roles. Its approach to monitoring, regulation and
intervention are all likely to develop. Studies of 'greening the machinery
of government' have already begun to appear [O'Riordan and Weak,
1990]. The state is also likely to develop an empowering role whilst
encouraging not-for-profit organisations of the type discussed at Box 29.
There are national, regional and local levels of the state to explore.
Another issue running through this article is the tension between
centralisation and decentralisation. On the deep ecology side, decentrali-
sation is a prominent theme. Yet there, and on the environmental
reformism side, there are pressures pulling in the opposite direction.
There is also plenty of scope for studies of the supranational dimen-
sions of environmental reformism. Here prominent themes are the loss of
sovereignty, and the extent of co-operation. Finally, there is enormous
opportunity for comparative studies. A common approach is to take a
policy area, like energy or transport, and focus on how it is dealt with in
different countries. This can involve the western democracies and/or the
former communist bloc. It is possible to focus on different themes -

policy-making, implementation problems, the role of groups, the effec-
tiveness of policy, or the evolving role of the state. This is not an
exhaustive list by any means. It is merely indicative of the kinds of articles
the editors will be glad to receive with regard to the environmental
reformism side of the flow chart. Submissions on other topics will, of
course, also be welcome, particularly where they get into detail on
countries outside Britain - from which most of the examples in this article
are taken.
Although most of these themes relate to public policy perspectives,
there is plenty of scope for other approaches when analysing environmen-
tal reformism. For example, some political science writers on inter-

national relations argue that domestic policies reflect international
pressures. International treaties on environmental issues, and, in
Europe, European Commission pressures on member states over green
issues, provide an interesting arena in which to explore these ideas. The
collapse of communism in Eastern Europe provides a test-bed for com-
parative approaches. More broadly, some suggest that green criticisms of
multinationals and big private sector firms are replacing Marxism as the
conventional critique of capitalism. Such ideas provide scope for socio-
logists as well as political scientists. One of the features of environmental
reformism is that there is plenty of scope for inter-disciplinary links.
There are contributions from a lawyer and an economist in this issue of
Environmental Politics.
In addition, some aspects of environmental reformism relate more
closely to the concerns of decision-makers in the real world than to dry
academic perspectives. One of the main green issues to analyse in the
1990s will be the nature of governmental responses on a wide range of
issues. During the 1980s writers and lobbyists on environmental issues
succeeded in changing the nature of the debate. Governments and
international organisations began to appreciate the extent to which issues
were linked to each other - energy policy to the disposal of nuclear waste,
transport policy with the ozone layer, and so on. Deep ecologists would
argue that, virtually without exception, governments in the 1980s and
early 1990s were adopting cosmetic, reformist approaches. There will be
a continuing need to monitor how, and to what extent, governments in
industrialised societies respond to deep green criticisms as their policies
evolve on the whole range of green issues.
A key question for this journal will be the extent to which growth and
sustainable approaches can be reconciled. Deep ecologists would argue
they are incompatible. Yet there are shades of green between the light
and the dark. There seems to be scope for governments to conserve finite
resources and adopt policies based on more sustainable approaches.

Radical transport policies for example could be devised to restrict road
traffic and promote public transport and moving goods by rail. Such
approaches would not satisfy deep ecologists but they could be a substan-
tial step towards meeting their criticisms. This is one of the most
important issues facing greens of all kinds in the 1990s. It is where
academic articles relate closely to the real world. The editors of Environ-
mental Politics will always be glad to receive articles looking at how far,
and to what extent, environmental reformist approaches - based on
growth, consumerism, and all the rest - can be made compatible with
deep green ideas. Or, to put it the other way round - how far can the ideas
about sustainable development be taken?

This journal also aims to be a forum for debate on the deep ecology side
of the argument. During the 1990s, there is bound to be a lot of debate
about Boxes 7 and 9 in particular. These relate to the principles on which
the deep green goal of the sustainable society might be based; and the
political features of such a society. There is also scope for debate on what
is the weakest part of the deep green case - strategies to bring a green
society about. These were discussed earlier in relation to Boxes 12 and 15.
Box 12 dealt with extra-parliamentary strategies; and Box 15 with
strategies via elected assemblies.
Finally, this article has a wider purpose - away from this journal. It is
part of the growing academic interest in green and environmental issues.
As such, it aims to help encourage further research and teaching around
the whole subject of green politics and environmental studies. The
different dimensions chart provides a framework that can be adapted to
form the basis of taught courses. It can be given a variety of dimensions by
adding in themes from political science, sociology, economics, town
planning, law and other disciplines. As an example of this, a number of
political science themes are discussed above near the start of this section.
If it is to take on the world-wide dimensions of deep ecology, the flow
chart also needs to integrate North/South, Third World dimensions. On
the research side, this article makes detailed suggestions at a time when
research is starting to develop on green issues. These ideas can be
developed into research topics on many scales - from postgraduate
dissertations to more ambitious fully funded research projects.
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The different dimensions of

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As environmental issues began to move up political and academic

Stephen C. Young is a Senior Lecturer in the Government Department at Manchester

Environmental Politics, Vol. 1, No. 1, Spring 1992, pp.9-44

dimension of Third World issues, and bi-lateral links between the

The Emergence of Green Politics

awaiting regeneration strategies [Robson, 1988].

Cr+en id—a *im*d at green perspective - the

light green, shallow ecology

The Great Divide: Deep and Shallow Ecology

industry and society demand. Deep ecologists argue we should stop

and illustrates Naess's argument. The government was in the throes of

reformist approaches within existing political systems on the other. Box 5

anthropologists. Judith Ennew, for example, has examined the life-style

There is a lot of speculative writing about what the sustainable society

Europe and in Third World countries also aspired to higher standards of

underlying the whole concept of the sustainable society.

principle is thus promoting participatory democracy [Porritt, 1984; Spret-

advantage that they promote accountability as well as involving people in

throughout history. Feminism thus takes on an ecological dimension.

which reject top-down, centralised, sometimes authoritarian ap-

A variation on this argument is the point that it might be possible to

Socialists are somewhat ambivalent on this, however. Some favour using

more aware of the environmental dimensions of their activities. Next

It can be objected that this fourth campaigning strategy is really part of

Green parties were established in many countries in the 1970s and

policies. The fundamentalists abhor compromise. The realists say that

After the green parties, the flow chart moves on to environmental

the roles of scientists on green issues - whether as whistle-blowers, as

tant of these agendas are those of the national governments. Here it is

economic groups, national landscape conservation groups, wildlife pro-

involved in pushing environmental issues onto political agendas. Such

Responses at Different Government Levels

cultural Policy led to a reappraisal. Environmental groups, concerned

balance of power in 40 out of 284 of them. Box 27 examines the policies

Responses Outside the Public Sector

wildlife projects. Some organisations operate in similar ways at the

Box 28 on the implementation of national government policy leads

the development and the resources it uses. But these conventional

been used to excess' [1989: 7].

for integrating the costs of preventing environmental damage into the

chart approach oversimplifies and tries to divide up complex interrelated

former communist bloc. It is possible to focus on different themes -

tal reformism. For example, some political science writers on inter-

resources and adopt policies based on more sustainable approaches.

about sustainable development be taken?

Allaby, Michael (1989), Guide to Gaia, London: Macdonald Optima.

Useful Economy, Basingstoke: Macmillan.

Future, London: Macdonald Optima.

No.4, pp. 379-97.

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