Features of State Institutions of Ireland of XVIII Century

Abstract

The expansion of Great Britain in the 18th century greatly strengthened its influence both on the European continent and throughout the world. The nearby existence of Catholic Ireland, which had developed trade and socio-political ties with European countries, threatened the national security of Great Britain and determined the religious orientation of restrictive politics. In the first half of the 18th century, political, economic and religious struggles both within Ireland and between the British and Irish led to the fact that Ireland actually turned into an English colony. There are still disputes among foreign scholars about the status of Ireland in the 18th century, since the powers of the parliament in Dublin were limited, and most of the country's population did not have civil and political rights. Nevertheless, in the 1760s, the Irish parliament implemented a number of bills in the field of social policy and local self-government, which indicates the significant independence of this legislative body. The legal status of the Irish state in the 18th century, its powers are compared with some widespread definitions of the term state are examined in the article.