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Green Parties in Federal Systems: Resistant or Compliant to Centralizing Pressures?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 July 2014

Narelle Miragliotta  and
Stewart Jackson
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Abstract

Green parties promote decentralization as a functional organizing principle but also a normative goal. This has been most vividly realized through the creation of comparatively devolved party structures. In federations, this can assume a territorial dimension and may lead to the adoption of confederal or federal models of party organization. Surprisingly little work has been undertaken on these arrangements when they have been implemented by green parties. This article explores whether the normative commitment by green parties to decentralized party arrangements is sufficient to preserve the integrity of dispersed party structures. This is done by examining the Australian Greens. We find that there has been gradual growth of the party’s national stratum, even in spite of formal provisions which guarantee the autonomy of the state organizations. It is argued that one of the main agents driving this outcome has been the Greens’ expanding federal parliamentary wing.

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Articles
Information
Government and Opposition , Volume 50 , Issue 4 , October 2015 , pp. 549 - 577
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s). Published by Government and Opposition Limited and Cambridge University Press 2014 

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Footnotes

*

Narelle Miragliotta is a Senior Lecturer in Australian Politics at Monash University. Contact email: narelle.miragliotta@monash.edu. Stewart Jackson is a Lecturer in the Department of Politics and International Relations at the University of Sydney. Contact email: stewart.jackson@sydney.edu.au.

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