1. P. Pulzer, German Politics 1945–1995 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995), 58.
2. The German basisdemokratisch is usually translated into ‘grassroots’. I propose to use ‘basisdemocracy’ since, as shall become apparent, basisdemocracy is instrumental to the understanding of the self-perception of the German Greens based on the two concepts — base and democracy. Base is fundamental to the way the Greens conceptualised their difference from other political parties, in terms of their relation to their base of support. It has also a distinctive appeal to the New Left groups coalescing in the Greens, due to the connotation of base-superstructure in Marxism. The name further discloses their critique of representative democracy, advocating democratisation of the base, applying the subsidiarity principle. Since these interpretations are entangled with the notion of basisdemocracy, and grassroots discloses only one facet of this rich repertoire I decided to use the original. For an explication of basisdemocracy for the Greens, see D. Salomon, ‘Grüne Theorie und Graue Wirklichkeit: Die Grünen und die Basisdemokratie’ (Freiburger Schriften zur Politikwissenschaft 4, 1992).
3. J. Beuys, ‘Aufruf zur Alternative’, in Heidt (ed.), Abschied vom Wachstumswahn (Zurich: Achberger, 1980), 169.
4. H. Gruhl, Ein Planet wird geplündert (Frankfurt: Fischer Verlag, 1975);
5. E. Eppler, Ende oder Wende? (Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 1975);