Irish political culture

⬛‘political culture’ - fundamental, deeply held views on

the state itself, on the rules of the political game and
on the kind of principles which underlie political
decision making. (Coakley, Chap. 2 Politics in the
Republic of Ireland)
⬛1970s Ireland: an agricultural country of small,
scattered family farms, … people strongly attached to
Catholic church… insulated from Europe by an all
pervasive British influence
⬛1980s-1990s - accelerating change, economic
transformation, cultural secularisation and
geopolitical reorientation
Contemporary Ireland

⬛Fintan O’Toole: Irish Times 25 September, 2001

⬛
⬛‘the emergence of a frantic, globalised, dislocated
Ireland has deprived [fiction writers of some of
their traditional tools]’
⬛
⬛‘the angular, discontinuous, spliced-together
nature of contemporary Irish reality’
Characteristics of Irish society - major impact on
values
⬛Socio-economic development: GDP per capital, from
60% of EU average 1960 to 100%+ of EU average 2000

⬛Religion and secularisation: Catholicism - it was along

lines of religious denomination rather than of
language that political mobilisation took place in
1800s

⬛Political experience: legacy of British rule; language,

freedom of movement of goods and people, and ideas
- multi-channel land
Changing political culture

⬛Nationalism
◆some minimum sense of loyalty to one’s nation
◆key question: how is the community defined?

⬛Contemporary Irish nationalism

◆is there still a demand for territorial unity
◆is it a force which is supportive of the state
◆to what extent are external groups regarded with
hostility
Changing political culture

⬛Democratic values

⬛Conservatism

⬛Clericalism

⬛Isolationism
Political Culture - a balance sheet
⬛divisions within Irish society
◆left versus right, one supports interventionist
economic policies, other privatisation, free market
◆secular versus clerical forces
◆cosmopolitan versus isolationist forces
⬛consensus re core values relating to national identity;
legitimacy of state virtually unchallengeable
⬛political culture ‘resembles that in other west European
states’
⬛Coakley argues ‘ it is… the pattern of underlying
religious values in a slowly secularising society that
will be responsible for the most distinctive elements
in Irish political culture in the future