Transnationalism Bibliography

Question(s) addressed by the author and working arguments

The study of Europeanization can be made both manageable and worth the effort. Green parties remain small but often pivotal player in party system across Europe. The broader point is that Europeanization is a two-way process: European integration shapes domestic parties’ ideology and strategies and organization, but parties also project themselves by seeking to shape the trajectory of European integration in ways that suit their own interests. Thus, Europeanization is regarded here as a shorthand term for a complex process whereby national actors adapt to, but also seek to shape, the trajectory of European integration in general, and EU policies and processes in particular.One way to analyze ideological change resulting from European integration and policies is to examine the development of the policy of programmatic content of party campaign manifestos and platforms across time.

European issues provide Greens with the opportunity to express certain core beliefs and manipulate them in a way which increases votes and exposure. Europeanization of ideology has highlighted certain components on Green ideology at the domestic level: in recent elections that have become the flagbearers of reform, clean government and better governance. Europeanization of parties involves not just ideological or programmatic change, but institutional change as well. Patterns of party competition can be Europeanized, especially to the extent that the EU itself becomes a politicized issue of domestic debate.

Green party transnational activity in Europe is manifest in two related but distinct organizations: The Green Group in the European Parliament (GGEP) and the European Federation of Green Parties (EFGP). GGEP has facilitated cooperation amongst several Green parties. Membership in the GGEP has required Greens to work more closely with the staff of the other parties. The ideological adaptation of the EFGP is marked by the imperatives of transnational co-operation and compromise.

From a rowdy collection of radical Greens groups, the EFGP has redefine its image as a consensus-seeking body responsible for elaborating common statements on a variety of issues. The challenge of developing a pan-European common Green ideology is even greater for the EFGP than it is for the GGEP.

Greens’ transnational activities also have encourage institutional adaptation, although perhaps not the type anticipated by those heralding the development of the true European-wide parties.

The green method is radical, realistic and reformist:

• radical, because a radical critique is necessary for orientation;
• realistic, because immediate goals must be achievable;
• reformist, because every opportunity for progress must be taken, as part of a step by step process.

Conceptual references to transnational – transnationalism

Transnational activity and transnational co-operation.

Conclusions or Final Remarks

Europeanization has worn down the sharper edges of Green ideology by posing a series of enormously complex and not certainly ‘Green’ issues. Europeanization means Green parties must now confront controversial issues (monetary union, sovereignty, further integration and enlargement) which they might otherwise choose to ignore, or on which there exists no clear ‘Green’ position. European integration has not brought about the integration of Green parties.