ABSTRACT
Why another book about green parties? In the 1980s they were new and exciting, questioning not only established ideas about nature and about economic growth, but also challenging the ‘iron law’ of Roberto Michels about the inevitable oligarchization of political parties. Grass-roots democracy was both an ideological tenet and an organizational project for practically all green parties. What has been said about the new social movements applies to them, too: ‘the new organizational form of contemporary movements is not just instrumental for their goals. It is a goal in itself … The medium, the movement itself as a new medium, is the message.’ (Melucci 1984, 830). Now, more than 20 years later, the greens have lost their glamour and innocence. They have grown up and even played the role of junior partner in governing coalitions in several countries. Did they leave grass-roots democracy by the roadside on the way to power?
