The author suggests that the ecology movement in Western Europe has reached the limits of reactive politics and cannot achieve more unless it adopts a different strategy. Surveys and referenda show that the public has an overwhelmingly good opinion of the ecology movement but that few will vote on it in elections. Thus, the movement has had little effect on public policy, which is still being formed by the same actors (business, government bureaucracies, labor unions, political parties) as well as institutions or policy-making forums. This irony exists for two reasons: the movement has no comprehensive approach to politics and certain forces in society and politics intensify impulses working in the direction of growth rather than check those impulses. These forces include consumers, labor unions, business, government bureaucracies, political parties, and the corporatist pattern. At the same time, candidates for the ecology movement take no positions about a whole range of issues that are important both for the evolution of advanced industrial societies and to its citizens. As long as comprehensive positions are not worked out, the ecology movement cannot appear credible to the large numbers of people who might vote for it. It is imperative that the movement become more truly political. (Author/KC)