Politics in the Republic of Ireland, 4th ed.

Abstract:

Irish politics steps into the twenty-first century free from the shadow of the Catholic Church and standing tall in the liberal sunlight of secularisation. Can it now mature into healthy democracy and provide strong efficient government less riddled by corruption at local and national level? These questions and many others are addressed in this book.

The work is organised in four parts. The first part explores the context of Irish politics, with chapter one addressing the pre-1922 experience, the move to independence and formation of statehood which form a common link to the Ireland we see today. Chapter two explores the cultural changes which happen within a climate influenced by other factors such as economic growth and information access, which help to shape the cultural values within which political values are formed. The third chapter considers the constitution and the role of the judiciary in the evolution of constitutional rule.

Part two deals with representative democracy at work, opening with chapter four which examines the rules of the electoral game, looking closely at PR-STV and other recent developments in the rules relating to elections such as campaign financing. Chapter five looks at political parties and the system within which they operate, describing some unusual features and the background from which they evolved. Chapter six examines the health and wealth of the political parties, testing out levels of participation and transparency and the overall vitality of Irish political parties. Voting behaviour is the subject of chapter seven, which considers evidence produced by the INES (Irish National Election Study) to answer questions such as why do Irish voters vote at all, are candidates more important than parties and what might condition their choice of party? Parliament in theory and practice is the feature of chapter eight which examines what parliament is supposed to do and how it is done. Turning from the legislative and scrutinising roles of Dáil deputies, chapter nine explores the constituency work of Tds and the high level of attention given to it. Chapter ten breathes an air of reality into the Irish myth that its political arena is stalked by many increasingly powerful women; a myth which probably arises from the media attention given to political heroines such as Mary Robinson, Mary McAleese and the likes of Mary O’Rourke and Mary Harney.

Chapter eleven opens part three with an exploration of the foundations of executive power in the Republic both at the level of President and Taoiseach. The twelfth chapter dissects the muscle and sinew of government to see how it works: the muscle being the titular masters of the government machine, members of cabinet and ministers of state; whilst the sinew represents the bureaucracy of the civil service, described by many in the media as the ‘permanent government’. The role of interest groups and the part they play in the policy-making process are examined in chapter thirteen. The complexity of modern political systems comprising so many important players other than elected politicians requires differentiation between government and the wider expression ‘governance’; this is done in chapter fourteen which addresses multilevel governance.

The fourth and final part - Ireland in a wider world - seeks to place Irish politics in a regional and international context. Chapter fifteen explores the evolution of Irish-British political relations up to and beyond the Good Friday Agreement, which whilst apparently widening the political divide in Northern Ireland has worked to improve understanding between Dublin and London. The closing chapter sixteen considers the European dimension of Irish politics and how that has influenced the international standing of Ireland in the modern political world.

The work will interest scholars and students engaged in Irish political studies.