Priming the state: continuity and junctures in the foundation of the Irish administration

Abstract

ABSTRACT A principle of continuity was baked into the political and legal instruments underpinning the embryonic Irish state. At the same time, a process of evolutionary change we call ‘administrative greening’ was initiated, which we examine here and in Biggins, MacCarthaigh, and Scott ([2024b]. Greening the Irish State: Early Legislative and Administrative Dynamics. Irish Political Studies, XXX, XXX). In this first article, we highlight the extent to which these dynamics shaped the formative or ‘priming’ years of the new state and its politics. We interrogate this from both political and legal angles. The pre-existence of British administrative bodies and norms constrained the Irish revolutionary parliament (Dáil Éireann), the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921 and the Constitution of Saorstát Éireann in 1922. The early leaders of the vulnerable state understood they would have fuelled instability and uncertainty had they chosen to dispense with the existing public administration en masse post-1921. But this inheritance did not preclude administrative evolution either. We explore the mechanisms through which objectives of continuity and change were framed. In so doing, we place our narrative within a broader literature on path-dependency and critical junctures.