Boell-Foundation: Governing Ecologically - How Germany's Green Party leverages its influence to promote ecological modernisation

The question is particularly relevant in view of the considerable number of government participa- tions entered into in recent years by the Greens in the Länder, where they have, in all cases, taken responsibility for the Ministry for the Environment. [...] The parties' positions differ, to put it simply – particularly with respect to the scale of structural changes in the economic system and the role of the State in the multi-level system of the Federal Republic of Germany (Wurster 2010, p. [...] Although this line thwarted the expectations of the grass roots and the manifesto of the national party, the Green members of the Lower Saxony parliament went along with it for the sake of maintaining the coalition. [...] The policy of the individual ministries and the directions these take seem to correspond most broadly to the ideals of the party that supplied the minister. [...] However, the reference to energy cannot be imputed solely to the Greens, but is a reflection of the fact that the subject area of the energy transition has increased greatly in importance in the last ten years.