Direct Action in the UK - chances, limitations and risks

Seminar paper from the year 2004 in the subject Politics - International Politics - Region: Western Europe, grade: A, University of Economics, Prague, course: The UK political system, 7 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: Since the beginning of the 1990s there is a growing direct action movement in the UK, starting with the emergence of the Earth First! (EF!) network. An actual example is the protest against Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS), a company carry-ing out biotechnological research and development including in-vitro-techniques and animal testing. At the same time the support for the parliamentary democratic system seem to be declining, expressed, for instance, by the decreasing turnout in general elections. So, what are the chances for contribution to the democratic system in the UK? Where is the concept limited and aren‘t there even risks for the democratic system? Here the protests against HLS become an important example again since HLS works under considerable con-straints created by the protesters, not only affecting their business, but also their employee‘s private lives. (Grant: 2004, p. 414) A term also often used in this context is ‘civil disobedience‘.