The Institutionalization of the European Green Party

• In Event: Environmentalism and (Green) Party Politics in Comparative Perspective

Abstract

Climate change transcends national borders and remedies have to be found internationally. Below the level of international treaties the European Union encompassing a group of nation states has set itself on a self-declared path to advocate ambitious goals to limit global warming and reduce carbon emission. Yet, the implementation of according measures is difficult and progress often times reduced by the imperatives of consensus building in the EU institutions, catering to all the different national economies and interests.

A less indulgent force for advancing this agenda might be the European Green Party (EGP), a transnational alliance of national green parties ('Europarty'). Mirroring the role and function of a national party, Europarties are not part of the formal institutional setting of the EU polity, but rather act as an intermediary organization, structuring European elections, connecting individuals inside the EU institutions and working at transforming fragmented national debates into a common European discourse. They are often hailed as an answer to the democratic deficit of the EU as they could allow for more political competition on European level, helping to shed the character of second order elections. The introduction of the leading candidates for the European elections 2014 was a clear step in this direction, aiming to make the parties more visible and to strengthen their overall role in European politics (the EGP embraced this idea wholeheartedly and even held a Europeanwide intraparty direct vote about their two candidates).

We join research on European integration and party institutionalization to offer an in-depth case study of the European Green Party. We understand the introduction of the leading candidates in 2014 to be a turning point, exerting pressure on the Europarty to further institutionalize. How did the institutionalization of the European Greens change between the European elections 2014 and 2019?

To answer this question we utilize a theoretical framework for institutionalization that can be adapted to analyze the unique structure of Europarties. We build on party institutionalization concepts that employ a multi-dimensional perspective (Randall and Svåsand 2002, Harmel et al. 2018, Weissenbach and Bukow 2019). We understand institutionalization as a process that includes objective, internal and external aspects and goes beyond electoral success and parliamentary seat distribution. Our empirical analysis of the European Greens in 2014 and 2019 is accordingly split into three parts, focusing on, i) election results, ii) leading candidates and potential intra-party conflicts, and, iii) election campaign, media coverage and coalition capability. In addition to easily accessible results of the European elections, we draw on a mix of datasets to analyze the internal and external dimensions. We combine quantitative analyses of self-collected social media (Twitter) data and policy position generated from the manifesto project, with qualitative interviews and a media analysis.

We suspect varying effects on three dimensions of the EGPs’ institutionalization, and the results of our analysis confirm these assumptions. In the objective dimension, the party has retained its ex ante stability by improving their electoral results. Yet, beneath the surface statistics volatility remains, with the party’s stability a result of the continued success of the Western and Nordic green parties. In the internal dimension, the party has ceded influence to the leading candidates while at the same time broadly changing nominating procedures (undermining a process of routinization). Due in part to the specific character of European elections, this strategy has been deemed a viable option that enables them to improve their visibility without falling prey to the whims of powerful politicians. Regarding value-infusion, the EGP aggregates national positions aptly where there is coherence, but avoids creating conflicts in more contested issues – the exception being European integration, where it positions itself as a vanguard. Combining both indicators, internal institutionalization decreased. In contrast, the external institutionalization of the greens made a big step in 2019. The party has been recognized as an essential actor, with references focusing on the greens’ support for their candidates and their organization of the TV debate. The high saliency of the climate issue has also helped the party immensely. As a result, the media sees and describes the greens as a mainstream party. The greens have been judged to be a new European force, capable of competing at eye level with social democrats and indispensable in policymaking focused on pro-European integration throughout the next five years.

Authors

• Niko Switek, University of Washington

• Kristina Weissenbach, University Duisburg-Essen