This thesis represents an original contribution to research in offering a comprehensive analysis of the work of Rudolf Bahro. The thesis combines a study of Bahro's work as a prominent opposition figure in the German Democratic Republic in the 1970s with an assessment of his career as an outspoken member of the West German Green Party in the 1980s. The core of the thesis is devoted to a thorough reappraisal of Bahro's major critique of 'actually existing socialism' in East Germany, Die Alternative - Zyr Kraik des real existierenden Sozialismus. Bahro's harsh critique of the SED is explored within the context of the GDR's historical development and Eastern European Marxist revisionism in general. A critical analysis of the extensive secondary literature which now surrounds this work is undertaken to discover how far existing interpretations offer an accurate assessment of Die Alternative. A further section compares for the first time the differing reception of Bahro's study in both East and West Germany. Bahro's earliest essays as an editor of the GDR journal Forum and his first critical work ... die nicht mit den Wolfen heulen are discussed as a key to establishing the particular nature of his opposition. Later chapters trace the development of Sahro's theories and discuss his contribution to the peace and ecology debates in West Germany in the 1980s. Bahro's efforts to achieve a synthesis of the interests of ecology and socialism are explored and his 'Fundamentalist' version of Green politics is discussed within the context of the Green Party's early development. The thesis concludes with an assessment of the increasingly radical utopianism permeating Bahro's writings and offers a critical examination of his attempts to infuse the ecology debate with a spiritual dimension, as detailed in Logik der Rettung, his chief work written in West Germany.

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This research explores how unions, corporations and the federal government in Canada are responding to the dual economic and climate change crisis. Climate change politics have fostered alliance-forming both between the labour and environmental movements as well as between the state and capital. Climate change policy over the past two decades has been a planned, coordinated neoliberal project by the state and capital that has led to increasing emissions. Meanwhile, most unions successfully transcended the ‘jobs versus the environment’ dichotomy being used by business to propagate a voluntarist climate change policy. After giving their support to the ratification of Kyoto, labour has struggled to operationalize labour-environmental alliance-forming. Recently, both labour and the state-capital alliance have drawn on an ecological modernist discourse to frame climate change as an opportunity for jobs or capital accumulation, respectively. But this discourse fails to address the transnational dynamics of climate change, and economic and environment justice.

This research explores how unions, corporations and the federal government in Canada are responding to the dual economic and climate change crisis. Climate change politics have fostered alliance-forming both between the labour and environmental movements as well as between the state and capital. Climate change policy over the past two decades has been a planned, coordinated neoliberal project by the state and capital that has led to increasing emissions. Meanwhile, most unions successfully transcended the ‘jobs versus the environment’ dichotomy being used by business to propagate a voluntarist climate change policy. After giving their support to the ratification of Kyoto, labour has struggled to operationalize labour-environmental alliance-forming. Recently, both labour and the state-capital alliance have drawn on an ecological modernist discourse to frame climate change as an opportunity for jobs or capital accumulation, respectively. But this discourse fails to address the transnational dynamics of climate change, and economic and environment justice.

This study assumes, rather than debates, that there is an increasingly global environmental crisis – global warming, loss of ozone layer, biodiversity loss, deforestation and desertification, natural resource depletion, toxic pollution - brought about by western nations’ abuse of the natural environment during nineteenth century industrialization, continuing through the twentieth century, and, many would argue, into the new millennium as well. Greens have been warning of the dangers of human-induced climate change since the 1960s. And yet, their analysis of the reasons for the wide and global range of ecological problems currently being experienced, of which climate change is only one, is not widely known. And even less so, are their solutions to the ecological crisis. This thesis, “Towards the development of a "green" worldview, and criteria to assess the "green-ness" of a text: Namibia Vision 2030 as example”, poses two research questions, and undertakes three tasks. The first question asks: “What does ‘seeing green’ as worldview mean?” “Green” emerges as not only pro-environmental attitudes and behaviours, but a fundamental challenge to western-cultural views on Self, and on the Self/Other relationship, including our human-nature relationship. It represents a total worldview, with its own legitimating narratives, epistemology, ontology, ethics, and viewpoints on real-world political issues as well. The green worldview differs sharply in its ultimate premises from mainstream sustainable development. On the green view, only the radical changes in Self, the Self/Other relationship, and society’s structures, which a green worldview demands, will be sufficient to avert the impending ecological crisis. A green worldview, while containing considerable diversity, is still sufficiently coherent and consistent that it can be reduced to a set of criteria and indicators for “seeing green”. This was the study’s second task. The study’s third task co-incides with its second research question: “How green is Namibia Vision 2030s worldview?” Namibia Vision 2030 is Namibia’s premier policy text designed to guide Namibia through a generation of sustainable development. Using the green criteria and indicators developed during the study, it is argued that particularly as far as this text’s ultimate premises on the human/nature relationship are concerned, its worldview is best described as pale green fading into grey. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2008. / Psychology / unrestricted

Various writers, for example Rudolf Bahro and Arne Naess, have for a long time associated Green politics with an impulse toward deepening democracy. Robert Goodin has further suggested that decentralisation of political authority is an inherent characteristic of Green politics. More recently in New Zealand, speculation has been raised by Stephen Rainbow as to the consequences of the direct democratic impulse for existing representative institutions. This research addresses that question. Examination of the early phase of Green political parties in New Zealand has found that the Values Party advocated institutional restructuring oriented toward decentralisation of political authority in order to enable a degree of local autonomy, and particpatory democracy. As time has gone on the Values Party disappeared and with it went the decentralist impulse, this aspect of Green politics being conspicuously absent in the policy of Green Party Aotearoa/New Zealand, the successor to the Values Party. Since this feature was regarded as synonymous with Green politics, a certain re-definition of Green politics as practised by Green political parties is evident. This point does not exhaust the contribution Green politics makes to democracy however, and the methodology used in this research, critical discourse analysis (CDA), allows an insight into what Douglas Torgerson regards as the benefits in resisting the antipolitical tendency of modernity, of politics for its own sake. This focusses attention on stimulating public debate on fundamental issues, in terms of an ideology sufficiently at variance with that prevalent such that it threatens to disrupt the hegemonic dominance of the latter, thereby contributing to what Ralf Dahrendorf describes as a robust democracy. In this regard Green ideology has much to contribute, but this aspect is threatened by the ambition within the Green Party in New Zealand toward involvement in coalition government. The final conclusion is that the Green Party in New Zealand has followed the trend of those overseas and since 1990 has moved ever closer to a commitment to the institutions of centralised, representative, liberal democracy and this, if taken too far, threatens their ideological integrity.

[Truncated introduction] This thesis will introduce Petra Karin Kelly, former Green politician and campaigner for social justice and environmental issues to an English-speaking audience as an important figure in the development of ideas relating to ecofeminism, nonviolence, and Green politics and utopias. Kelly, born in 1947 in Germany, spent the latter half of her childhood in the United States, and attended university there before returning to Europe. While working with the European Community in Brussels, Kelly became involved in grassroots politics in Germany and was one of the co-founders of the German green party, Die Grunen, (literally: the Greens) in 1979. She was to become a formidable politician through her passion for grassroots politics, nonviolence and feminism and her excellent leadership skills. Later ostracised by the party, due in part to her inability and unwillingness to conform to party rules, Kelly worked independently, giving speeches and promoting peace and the importance of human rights. However, at the age of 44, she was murdered by her partner, Gert Bastian, who then shot himself. It should be noted that texts so far written on Petra Kelly have been essentially biographies, which, while encompassing much of her academic and political life, focus heavily upon her personal life, in particular her relationships with married men, and her long term relationship with former NATO General Gert Bastian ... Therefore, the aim of the dissertation is not to ignore the importance of personal matters, rather to ensure a professional approach towards them. For this reason, the focus of this sociopolitical and sociohistorical thesis is upon the elements of ecofeminism, nonviolence and utopia as they relate to Petra Kelly’s politics, both within her role with Die Grunen and in her political life outside of German parliament.

Environmental and green politics came into prominance during the last two decades. These two concepts, as well as environmentalism and ecologism are defined in this study and placed within the context of the political system. The emphasis is on green politics and ecologism. The global green movement is analysed according to policy, organisational structures and pattern of development. The South African environmental and green movements are described in the latter part of the study. It is shown that South Africa has a long history of environmentalism. The South African green movement is compared with the global green movement after which it is placed within the context of the South African political system. Green politics in South Africa seems to resemble the early stages of the development of the European movement and the concept of social justice is emphasised. Selected Western Cape groups are discussed according to information gathered by means of a questionnaire. / Political Science / M.A. (Political Science)

This thesis compares the electoral programmes of green political parties in the Federal Republic of Germany, the Republic of Austria, and the Czech Republic in the years 1990- 2014, namely the German party Alliance '90/The Greens, the Austrian party The Greens - The Green Alternative, and the Czech Green Party. The beginning of the work provides an explanation of the concepts related to green politics, such as ecology, environmentalism, environment and sustainable development, whose knowledge is essential for understanding the major themes of the electoral programmes. Subsequently, the origin and history of all three political parties are outlined. The actual comparison is performed in a twofold manner. The first one compares the content of a specific programme with the previous ones and the second one compares the programmes of all three green parties for the same or the close electoral period. Furthermore, the format of individual programmes is characterized. Attention is focused on the major thematic areas, similarities and differences, and on the position of these parties before and after a particular parliamentary election being held.