Lehet más a pártrendszer? Az ökopolitika pártosodása elôtt álló akadályok Magyarországon
Is Another Party System Possible? Obstacles Impeding the Formation of a Green Party in Hungary

Summary/Abstract: Our essay attempts to describe the circumstances that prevented and still prevent a Hungarian ecological party from being successful in the parliamentary elections since 1990. In our view the political opportunity structure, has been mostly unfavorable for green parties in the last 16 years, and we differentiated between 3 main factors: external factors, the green movement, the electorate. As for external factors, the election system is disproportionate, the party system is getting more and more concentrated and the party competition is intensifying, which works against small and newly formed parties and party financing favors the big parties. In addition, the currently existing cleavages seem too deep and rigid for a newly emerging “green cleavage”. Within the green movement there is no agreement on the question whether it is necessary to form an ecological party, whether such a party would be successful at the parliamentary elections and many parties have earlier tried to make use of the name “Green party”, parties that were in no way connected to the ecological idea. We also lamented on the possible electorate voting for a green party and used “green party success” theories such as the postmaterialism theory or the cultural theory to assess the social and cultural elements that are similar and those that are different in Hungary compared to the countries where ecological parties have been successful. All in all we came to the conclusion that a green party might be more successful at a European Parliamentary election than at the Hungarian elections. The ecological idea is getting more and more widespread throughout the world, and the increasing weight of the green movement shows that ecology is also becoming an important issue in Hungary; with its activities in parliament and appearances in the media, a Hungarian green party would be able to propagate this issue of critical importance, the principles of ecological thinking, the idea of a sustainable society might also move from periphery to a more central position in Hungarian society.

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