Is Green Politics left wing or right wing?

On economic organisation Green Politics scores −05 on a scale from −10 (common ownership) to +10 (private property and markets). On social and cultural order it scores −09. A single left–right figure combines these and four further measurements that move independently, which is why the atlas reports six.

Is Green Politics authoritarian?

On the organisation of power, which measures whether authority is dispersed among institutions that can stop each other or concentrated in a single centre, Green Politics scores −07. Rotation of officeholders, imperative mandates, referenda, deep suspicion of professional politics.

Atlas / Organisations / Green Politics

Green Politics

Die Grünen founding · 1980– · Germany, worldwide · Green · Electoral party · coding confidence high

−05ECcollective

−09CUpluralist

−07AUpluralist

−01SClocal

−08IDuniversal

−02CHlawful

Each axis runs from −10 to +10, with zero a genuine mixed or balanced position rather than an absence of opinion. A score describes a stated position and a governing record; it is not a judgement of merit. What each score means →

Core principles

Ecology, grassroots democracy, social justice and non-violence as four inseparable pillars.

Economic model

Ecological regulation of markets, public investment, opposition to growth as an objective.

Organisation of powers

Rotation of officeholders, imperative mandates, referenda, deep suspicion of professional politics.

Reading note

The party family that most clearly required a second axis: its economics are moderate, its cultural and authority positions are not.

Check a claim about Green Politics. The interactive atlas measures the distance between any two organisations across all six axes and shows which ones carry the disagreement.

Open in the atlas

The evidence for every score

All six cells are sourced. A rationale explains what the score is measuring and each artefact is something a third party can check without taking anyone's word for it.

EC · Economic organisation · scored −05

Coded −5: ecological regulation and public investment rather than socialisation.

Programme textThe 1980 founding programme rejected both capitalist growth and state socialism.

CU · Social and cultural order · scored −09

Coded −9: the party emerged from the new social movements and carried their positions wholesale.

Programme textFounding programme committed to gender parity, minority rights and abolition of the abortion statute.

AU · Organisation of power · scored −07

Coded −7: grassroots democracy is one of the four founding pillars.

Documented act or statuteOffice rotation and the imperative mandate were practised in the party's first Bundestag period.

SC · Scale of decision · scored −01

Coded −1: think globally, act locally, with binding international agreement.

Programme textThe founding programme combined municipal action with global ecological obligation.

ID · Rule of membership · scored −08

Coded −8: refugee rights and open borders as founding commitments.

Programme textThe 1980 programme demanded the right of asylum without restriction.

CH · Method and tempo · scored −02

Coded −2: non-violence is a founding pillar, with a movement history of direct action.

ScholarshipThe party grew out of anti-nuclear occupations that used mass civil disobedience.

How it moved

Positions are recorded at dated anchor points tied to a documented moment — a programme adopted, a government formed, a reversal. Nothing is interpolated between them, because nothing is known between them. Figures in amber moved by two points or more from the previous anchor.

Anchor	EC	CU	AU	SC	ID	CH	What it is tied to
1980	−05	−09	−07	−01	−08	−02	Founding congress: four pillars, office rotation, imperative mandates, and a pacifist commitment.
1998	−04	−09	−06	00	−08	−03	Enters federal government and votes for the Kosovo deployment the following year.
2011	−04	−09	−06	00	−08	−04	Wins the minister-presidency of Baden-Württemberg.
2021	−04	−08	−06	+01	−07	−05	Federal coalition; supports arms deliveries to Ukraine from 2022.

Net movement, 1980 to 2021: SC +2, CH −3. A trajectory records where an organisation has been. It does not forecast, and several organisations in this corpus moved a long way with no warning available in advance.

Nearest organisations by measured distance

Straight-line separation across all six axes, out of a maximum of 49.0. Proximity means similarity of stated position, not endorsement and not resemblance in outcome.

Countries

Germany

Cite this page

Scores are revised on evidence, so a citation should carry the version it refers to. Version 4.3.1 is current; the revision log records every change.

McGrath, K. (2026). Green Politics. The Political Atlas, version 4.2. https://thepoliticalatlas.com/organisations/greens/ (accessed 2026-08-01).

Free to quote and reproduce with attribution. This is a synthesis rather than a peer-reviewed dataset — where an authoritative figure is needed, cite the Chapel Hill Expert Survey, the Manifesto Project or V-Dem.