ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to survey the extent of Green involvement in subnational coalitions from the first ‘red–green’ coalitions in Hessen and West Berlin through to the mid-1990s. It assesses the impact that green ideas have had on policy-making; and considers to what extent the Green Party itself has been responsible for defining this impact, or whether the peculiarities of the German policy process have effectively set their own agenda. The chapter outlines the extent to which policies directly associated with the Greens were actually implemented. The Greens could not have hoped to remain aloof from the pressures of political praxis and the opportunity structure has performed a constraining as well as enabling role upon the party and the wider green agenda. In this sense, any realisation of the more utopian green vision that provided much of the party’s initial impetus and enthusiasm has been postponed – perhaps indefinitely.
