FRANCESCA CHIAPPINI BARGIELA

Struttura e politica dell'«Ecology Party» (Un decennio di attivitą dei «verdi» inglesi) 

N. 4/1985

Summary — The article examines the phenomenon represented by the English Ecology Party which after its troubled birth in the late Seventies has failed to make an impact onto the political scene.

Its apparently uneventful first decade has been an unavoidable trial period for the small legion of perseverant believers in the ecologism applied to any aspect of human life.

The results of their activity, so far visible mainly on a theoretical level, are collected in a body of propositions the complexity of which can give food for thoughts even to the most sceptical critic of the "green philosophy".

The political Manifesto however does not reflect the internal divisions on vital issues such as the type of approach which the Party is to adopt towards traditional politics. The clash between those in favour of promoting decentralisation at all levels and the far more ‘centralised’ leadership is only one of the aspects analysed in this paper. The solutions however are by no means easy, although the present crisis does not necessarily imply an irreversible decline of the ‘green challenge’.