THEORY
reaching the sustainable society. By contrast, reformist approaches do not add
up to an ideology. They offer no distinctive view of the human condition or the
structure of society. They are embedded in and ‘easily accommodated by other
ideologies’ (p. 7) such as conservatism, liberalism or socialism.
It is because ecologism encapsulates the most interesting, challenging and
distinctive contributions made by environmental political theorists that Part
focuses on its arguments and examines the veracity of the claim that it
represents a distinct ideology. Chapter identifies some of the key issues in
environmental philosophy by exploring ethical questions about the relationship
between humans and the natural world. Chapter outlines the core features of
green political thought and examines the relationship between green ideas and
traditional political ideologies. There is often a close, and sometimes confusing,
relationship between theory and practice in any discussion of political ideology.
One further question underlying the discussion in Part concerns the
implications of ecologism for practical political arrangements: what impact has
it had on the development of green parties and the wider environmental
movement, and what lessons does it have for policymakers?Note
1 Dobson uses the term ‘environmentalism’ rather than ‘reformism’, but his is a very
particular use of the term which can give rise to confusion, for example, when
discussing ‘modern environmentalism’ or the ‘environmental movement’.