Green Party irrelevant in US, unlike in Europe
Because the American system makes it difficult for third parties to participate, Green Party candidates do not have opportunities to learn the trade of politics
any Americans value environmental protection and want to see more of it. But Jill Stein, the Green Party presidential candidate, is drawing only 1 to 3 per cent in recent polls, even in an election where many voters dislike the major candidates and are looking for alternatives.
Stein certainly has worked to differentiate herself from the two major party candidates. In July, she asserted that electing Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton — probably the choice of most pro-environment voters — would “fan the flames of... right-wing extremism” and be as bad as electing Donald Trump.
While Stein makes anti-establishment statements like this, her German counterparts have been advancing a green agenda in local, regional and national government for the past 30 years. Most recently, Winfried Kretschmann was re-elected this year as head of government in Baden-Wrttemberg, one of Europe’s technologically and industrially most advanced regions. I grew up in Germany and have taught about Germany and Europe in the United States for the past 15 years, so I have seen Green Party politicians at work in both countries. In my view, there are two reasons why the US Green Party remains so marginal. Structurally, the American electoral system is heavily weighted against small political parties. But US Greens also harm themselves by taking extreme positions and failing to understand that governing requires compromise — a lesson their German counterparts learnt several decades ago.
Both European and North American Green Parties evolved from activist movements in the 1960s that focused on causes including environmentalism, disarmament, nuclear power, non-violence, reproductive rights and gender equality. West German Greens formed a national political party in 1980 and gained support in local, state and federal competitions.
Proportional representation vs winner takes all
The German Green Party’s rise owed much to the country’s electoral system. As in many continental European democracies, political parties win seats in German elections based on the percentage of voters that support them. For example, a party winning a third of the popular vote will hold roughly a third of the seats in the parliament after the election. Proportional representation makes it possible for small parties to gain a toehold and build a presence in government over time.
In contrast, US elections award seats on a winner-takes-all basis. The candidate with the most votes wins, while votes cast for candidates representing other parties are ignored. As a result, American voters choose their leaders within a de facto two-party system in which other parties often have trouble even getting their candidates’ names onto ballots. US Greens have won only a handful of state-level races, and have never won a congressional seat.
There is no easy way for the US Green Party to emulate its German counterparts. Because the American political system makes it difficult for third parties to participate, Green Party candidates do not have opportunities to learn the trade of politics. They have remained activists who are true to their base instead of developing policy positions that would appeal to a broader audience. By doing so, they weaken their chances of winning major races even in liberal strongholds. As a result, green ideas enter American political debates only when Democrats and Republicans take up these issues. It is telling that major US environmental groups started endorsing Clinton even before she had clinched the Democratic presidential nomination over Bernie Sanders, who took more aggressive positions on some environmental and energy issues during their primary contest. And although Sanders identifies as an environmentalist, he sought the Democratic Party nomination instead of running as the Green Party candidate.
This suggests that running on a third-party ticket in the US is still not a winning route to shaping a message aimed at a broad electorate. Instead, climate change, dwindling energy resources and growing human and economic costs from natural disasters will do more to promote ecological consciousness and political change in mainstream America than the radical rhetoric of the US Green Party. Per Urlaub is associate professor of German studies at the University of Texas.
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