Abstract
ABSTRACTIreland’s electoral politics have always revolved around Fianna Fáil. While Whyte [Whyte, J. (1974) Ireland: politics without social bases, in: R. Rose (Ed.) Electoral Behavior: A Comparative Handbook, pp. 619–657 (New York, NY: The Free Press)] contended that ‘Irish party politics [are] sui generis: the context from which they spring is sui generis’, Garvin [Garvin, T. (1982) Theory, culture and Fianna Fáil: a review, in: M. Kelly, L. O'Dowd & J. Wickham (Eds.) Power, Conflict and Inequality, pp. 171–185 (Dublin: Turoe)] argued that ‘Fianna Fáil is a political formation which has … the power to defy the rather frail taxonomic systems of political scientists’. Political scientists may have been using the wrong comparators: rather than considering Fianna Fáil as a catch-all party it is better understood as a ‘natural governing party’. This article situates Fianna Fáil in terms of the theoretical models that account for the essential nature of political parties and the working of the competitive systems they create; and then uses those insights to compare Fianna Fáil with other dominant centre parties in Italy, Japan, India and Canada. It asks if Fianna Fáil is still the party it once was, and, if changed, with what consequences for our understanding of Irish politics.
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