ABSTRACT
The Federal Republic of Germany is one of the most densely populated countries in Europe. The Green political and environmental movement began in West Germany, where the Green party consistently received more than 5 percent of the vote in elections between 1983 and 1990. It is a leader among the European Community nations in the application of pollution-control technology and in national levels of voluntary recycling. Under the Basic Law, or constitution, which was ratified by a majority of the states in 1949, the Federal Republic is a decentralized federalist country. Compared to the United States, the German federal government has relatively few formal levers to ensure that the states implement environmental legislation according to federal intent. Political parties play a crucial role in relations between federal and state governments, and in most other facets of environmental politics in Germany.
