ABSTRACT
The French Greens are a relatively social and political phenomenon. The requirement for longer electoral lists caused some problems, but in general the new law allowed the Greens to have far more candidates elected than in 1977. 757 ecologists were elected to town councils in 1983 for a total vote of 147.884. The electoral system devised toward this end was one which reinforced the monolithic, highly centralised character of the Napoleonic French state by allowing for an emotional but largely meaningless, first round vote and a decisive second round one. There are three main pillars to the political program of Les Verts: Autonomy, Solidarity, and Ecology. The dominating theme of Les verts' economic proposals stems from the fundamental criticism of the productivist economic model that industrialism has generated. In sum, the Greens have to face considerable institutional, philosophical and cultural obstacles in their quest for recognition. The size of these obstacles is particularly great in France for the reasons.
