ABSTRACT
This chapter is concerned with the dynamics and development of Green parties within their respective national political milieu. It provides a discussion of what 'new' politics is, and its impact on European party politics. The coexistence of 'old' and 'new' politics has important implications for the meaning of political change. Although there is a general acknowledgement in the literature on contemporary Green parties, that they and the social movements that contributed so much to their political emergence do represent a new force in politics, there is much less consensus on the origins of these changes. The Green parties, and what their emergence represents in socio-economic terms, are by no means the only or principal expression of contemporary political change. They are, however, one consistent element in the unfolding political landscape in every advanced European society. The most pervasive explanation of the rise of the 'new politics' has concentrated on primordial values as the key independent or causal variable.
