 | This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. (April 2010) |
Citizens Party | |
|---|---|
| Founded | November 2, 1979 |
| Dissolved | ~1990 |
| Preceded by | People's Party |
| Succeeded by | Progressive State Parties (WA, OR, MN, VT) |
| Ideology | Environmentalism Progressivism Green politics[1] Left-libertarianism[2][3] |
| Colors | Green |
The Citizens Party was a political party in the United States. It was founded in Washington, D.C., by Barry Commoner, who aimed to gather under one banner a nationwide political organization of progressive, environmentalist and liberal groups, many of which were unsatisfied with President Jimmy Carter's administration, for the first time since the dissolution of the national Progressive Party in the 1960s. The Citizens Party registered with the Federal Elections Commission at the end of 1979. Commoner, a professor of environmental science at Washington University in St. Louis, was the head of the Center for the Biology of Natural Systems in St. Louis, Missouri and editor of Science Illustrated magazine.
The Citizens Party platform was very progressive, pro-science, and environmentalist. Some have claimed that it was possibly socialist as well, but this claim arose from a misunderstanding of the economic democracy platform of the party, which appears to be a form of corporatism. Commoner repeatedly espoused opposition to socialism for parts of the economy other than essential infrastructure. His economic democracy idea stated that the business of business is to do business, but that the business of government is to regulate business to prevent abuses.
In all, the party was founded around four essential platforms, including economic democracy.
- ^ John Barry & E. Gene Frankland, ed. (2014). International Encyclopedia of Environmental Politics. Routledge. p. 88. ISBN 9781135553968.
However, the party remained alive (16,000 members in 1982), scoring some local electoral victories. New members moved it leftward and began to identify themselves as the US version of Die Grünen (German Greens). Feminists prevailed in the intra-party struggle with other factions.
- ^ Left-Libertarian Parties: Explaining Innovation in Competitive Party Systems, Herbert P. Kitschelt, World Politics, Vol. 40, No. 2 (Jan., 1988), pp. 194-234.
- ^ Sustaining Abundance: Environmental Performance in Industrial Democracies. Cambridge University Press. 17 March 2003. ISBN 9780521016926.
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