(Capacity of Learning of Political Systems)

Baden Baden: NOMOS. 2000.

The book deals with the capacity of learning of highly industrialized countries. The author exemplifies the manner in which the political systems in Sweden and Germany coped with the challenge of environmental protest by describing the ecological discourse on nuclear energy. In doing so, the author conducted a systematic content analysis of the minutes of the party congresses of all the parliamentary parties in the two countries from 1970 until 1993. In addition the main trade unions and employer associations were included in the analysis. Three different kinds of environmental movements (traditional, grass root, and managerial organizations such as Greenpeace) were analyzed as driving forces of environmental change. In order to determine to what extent the environmental discourse was influenced by opinions of a radical nature, the membership newspapers of these environmental organizations were analyzed as well. All in all more than 7.000 documents entered into the analysis.

The book concludes that the cognitive political opportunity structure was more open for environmental protest in Germany than in Sweden. Hence, the conclusion challenges the findings of other analyses which postulate that Sweden has been particularly receptive to environmental innovations. In sharp contrast to Sweden, mainly the Social Democratic Party and sections of the Trade Union Movement have been supporting protests by environmental movements in Germany.

The basic assumption guiding the analysis contends that regulations concerning environmental issues need to be institutionalized effectively. The status of the institutionalization of ecological positions is roughly reflected by the model in figure 1. The more social actors and areas move towards the ecological position (top), the more environmental positions are institutionalized in society.