Social movements take shape in relation to the kind of state they  face, while over time states are transformed by the movements that  they both incorporate and resist. Green States and Social Movements is  a comparative  study of the environmental movement's successes and failures in four very different states: the USA, UK, Germany and Norway. The history  covers the entire sweep of the modern environmental era that begins in  1970. The end  in view is a green transformation of the state and society on a par  with earlier transformations that gave us first the liberal capitalist state and then the welfare state. The authors explain why such a  transformation is now most likely in Germany, and why it is least  likely in the United States, which has lost the status of  environmental pioneer that it gained in the early 1970s. Their  comparative analysis also explains the role played by social movements  in making modern societies more deeply democratic, and yields insights  into the strategic choices of environmental movements as they decide  on what terms to engage, enter or resist the state. Sometimes it makes sense for a movement to act conventionally, as a green party or set of  interest groups. But sometimes inclusion can mean co-optation, in  which case a movement can instead emphasize action in and through  civil society.

Green States and Social Movements: Environmentalism in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, and Norway PDF

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