ABSTRACT
The boundaries of contemporary politics are indeed changing as alternative values and rising expectations impinge on individual political consciousness, erode old certainties and alter those patterns of collective behaviour that fashion politics. The case of Europe's Green parties indicates a mixed picture with regard to the prospects for political change across the continent. Changes in the shape or focus of party competition amount to something more far-reaching than the nominal shifts that occur in the polemical or programmatic content of established parties. Peter Mair's calculus of party system change suggests that the outcome of ideological, strategic or electoral shifts indicates a degree of transformation, in both the shape and direction of party competition, as well as in the political order. W. Rudig's analysis of the critical questions of adaptation and political competence is at least as relevant as his insights into the institutional and cultural obstacles to a widespread Green party breakthrough in European politics.
