ABSTRACT
If the existence of a large environmental movement and high levels of popular concern about the environment are taken as indicators of the extent of likely support for a Green party, the British case must, to the casual observer, appear paradoxical. On the one hand, the environmental movement in Britain comprises a rich variety of groups, campaigns and networks sustained by a high level of public concern with environmental matters, and it is plausibly claimed that ‘Britain has the oldest, strongest, best-organized and most widely supported environmental lobby in the world’ (McCormick 1991:34). On the other hand, the British Green Party, although it was the first such party in Europe, now appears weak by the standards of most of the larger and more economically developed societies of western Europe.
