Parliamentary Democracy in Ireland

Abstract

AMONG the currently signficant themes in Irish parliamentary democracy are corporatism, clientelism, corruption and centralisation. The last mentioned may seem ironic because the government has made great play of moves to decentralise civil service departments but their proposals envisage no devolving of power — just office relocation. Corruption and clientelism are, however, well established as focal points of comment on Irish politics. Similarly, corporatism has become so embedded in Ireland that the benefits of the social partnership model, as it is called, are evoked at almost all levels of political, social and cultural life. Each of these themes may be related to the size of the Republic, its relative social homogeneity and its pattern of privileged access to power at both an individual and group level. They also resonate with accounts of other small liberal democratic states in the European Union that have to deal with the economic, legal and political constraints on their formal autonomy. Though class differences are downplayed in everyday Irish discourse, the political, administrative and business elites share many social, educational and cultural assumptions. High amongst their common beliefs is a nationalist solidarity that finds expression in the assumption that what is good for business is beneficial to Ireland as a whole. At a rhetorical level, Irish politicians have asked whether the Republic is closer to Boston or Berlin — a dichotomy between low levels of state regulation and taxation on the one hand and comprehensive social welfare provision on the other. The answer is mixed, but it points to some important ambiguities of Irish political life. An understanding of Irish politics is sometimes made more difficult for foreigners by the seeming familiarity of the dominant institutions. The political institutions of Ireland are — for the most part — based on the Westminster model. At its formation in 1922, the Irish Free State inherited an almost complete administrative system, together with other important state agencies. Irish independence has been described as more like a change in regime than a revolution. 1 The Constitution of the Free State was replaced in 1937 but there was significant continuity with the previous one. Each of the institutions referred to in the Constitution — the presidency, the Oireachtas (parliament), the government and the courts — is given specific powers, to be exercised in accordance with the general principles of a British-style parliamentary democracy. However, the Constitution does have some significant non-British features. Most