Being Green in the East: The success and impact of Green parties in post-socialist countries

Abstract

This article examines the presence and activities of Green parties in governments of Central and Eastern Europe. In recent years, many ecologist parties and movements gained considerable electoral and general political success, especially in developed democracies of Western Europe. However, their ideological counterparts in new democracies tend to remain out of power and often out of parliament, albeit with a few notable exceptions. In this study, success of the Greens in CEE is operationalised through their impact on public spending and direct investments allocated to environmental protection. The hypothesis regarding the Greens’ impact on spending is tested within the regression models, along with other potential predictors of government expenditure. The research results demonstrate a low significance of Greens in government participation and also their impact on budgetary allocation, contributing to the debate about the Green politics’ position in the context of social and political cleavages in post-socialist societies.

Keywords

• Green parties
• public spending
• environmental protection
• Central and Eastern Europe