Pub Date : 2022-07-03DOI: 10.1080/07907184.2022.2097553
{"title":"Republic of Ireland 2021","authors":"","doi":"10.1080/07907184.2022.2097553","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/07907184.2022.2097553","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":45746,"journal":{"name":"Irish Political Studies","volume":"37 1","pages":"327 - 381"},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2022-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42764464","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-06-21DOI: 10.1080/07907184.2022.2091123
S. Hopkins
achieve the goal of stability of democracy. On the other hand, the authors make an important note: this is the case only for Western Europe. When it comes to Eastern Europe the higher degree of closure tends to go together with weaker democratic performance (p. 261). At the same time, they warn that the positive effect of party system closure can be experienced only if the closure is achieved through competition. This book is excellent reading for scholars interested in party systems, the functioning and quality of democracy. Resulting from the rigorous methodological approach of the authors and the valuable conclusions with which they successfully defy widespread assumptions about the party system, this book should be mandatory reading. Exceptionally well written, it constitutes a perfect complement to the debate on the institutionalization of party systems by establishing a new tool to capture it – party system closure. Undoubtedly, this book is destined to become a classic.
{"title":"Irish political prisoners, 1960–2000: braiding rage and sorrow","authors":"S. Hopkins","doi":"10.1080/07907184.2022.2091123","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/07907184.2022.2091123","url":null,"abstract":"achieve the goal of stability of democracy. On the other hand, the authors make an important note: this is the case only for Western Europe. When it comes to Eastern Europe the higher degree of closure tends to go together with weaker democratic performance (p. 261). At the same time, they warn that the positive effect of party system closure can be experienced only if the closure is achieved through competition. This book is excellent reading for scholars interested in party systems, the functioning and quality of democracy. Resulting from the rigorous methodological approach of the authors and the valuable conclusions with which they successfully defy widespread assumptions about the party system, this book should be mandatory reading. Exceptionally well written, it constitutes a perfect complement to the debate on the institutionalization of party systems by establishing a new tool to capture it – party system closure. Undoubtedly, this book is destined to become a classic.","PeriodicalId":45746,"journal":{"name":"Irish Political Studies","volume":"38 1","pages":"283 - 285"},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2022-06-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42109846","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-05-26DOI: 10.1080/07907184.2022.2078034
Claire McGing
ABSTRACT This article examines the development of caucuses by women councillors in Irish local government in the wake of the 2017 launch of a caucus for women members of the Oireachtas. The multi-method research offers a rich, gendered assessment of the factors which enable and constrain the establishment and operations of caucuses for women councillors and it places a particular focus on the first local caucuses established in the country (Limerick City and County [2019] and Dublin City [2020]). Local government in Ireland provides a unique opportunity to support such an investigation as partisanship is less significant there than it is at the national level. The research illuminates the circumstances under which we can expect locally elected women of different parties and ideologies to come together in order to cooperate. Enabling circumstances include a high level of interest and gender consciousness among women councillors – with new women identified as key players – and the presence of a caucus entrepreneur and a dedicated secretariat. Importantly, the study demonstrates how geographical differences in women’s representation impact on caucuses and posits that caucus structures are not necessarily feminist or intersectional spaces. The article makes an important contribution to global research in this area which tends to focus on caucuses in national parliaments.
{"title":"Doing politics differently: the establishment of cross-party caucuses by women councillors in Irish local government","authors":"Claire McGing","doi":"10.1080/07907184.2022.2078034","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/07907184.2022.2078034","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This article examines the development of caucuses by women councillors in Irish local government in the wake of the 2017 launch of a caucus for women members of the Oireachtas. The multi-method research offers a rich, gendered assessment of the factors which enable and constrain the establishment and operations of caucuses for women councillors and it places a particular focus on the first local caucuses established in the country (Limerick City and County [2019] and Dublin City [2020]). Local government in Ireland provides a unique opportunity to support such an investigation as partisanship is less significant there than it is at the national level. The research illuminates the circumstances under which we can expect locally elected women of different parties and ideologies to come together in order to cooperate. Enabling circumstances include a high level of interest and gender consciousness among women councillors – with new women identified as key players – and the presence of a caucus entrepreneur and a dedicated secretariat. Importantly, the study demonstrates how geographical differences in women’s representation impact on caucuses and posits that caucus structures are not necessarily feminist or intersectional spaces. The article makes an important contribution to global research in this area which tends to focus on caucuses in national parliaments.","PeriodicalId":45746,"journal":{"name":"Irish Political Studies","volume":"37 1","pages":"499 - 523"},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2022-05-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48362191","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-05-23DOI: 10.1080/07907184.2022.2078145
Michele Crepaz, R. Chari
ABSTRACT There are more than 2,000 interest groups in Ireland that play a key role in policy development. This paper explores which of these groups have access to Irish policymaking across various political arenas. It does so by examining original data from 2018, gained through large-N survey research on over 300 active interest groups, including business groups, firms, professional organisations, NGOs, citizen groups and consultancies. The analysis focusses on four key venues of policymaking which lobbyists seek to influence: the media, government departments, the Dáil and state agencies. We find that lobbying access in Ireland is similar to other West European countries, but also different. Organisations with higher organisational capacity and that hire revolving door lobbyists are more likely to be frequent visitors of almost all arenas compared to other groups. This is similar to existing accounts of bias in lobbying access reported in other countries. However, in contrast to scholarship focussing on other European political systems, access is not biased in favour of economic groups. The analysis fills an important empirical gap in the quantitative study of lobbying and adds an otherwise understudied perspective of non-state actor engagement in Irish politics.
{"title":"Interest group access to policymaking in Ireland","authors":"Michele Crepaz, R. Chari","doi":"10.1080/07907184.2022.2078145","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/07907184.2022.2078145","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT There are more than 2,000 interest groups in Ireland that play a key role in policy development. This paper explores which of these groups have access to Irish policymaking across various political arenas. It does so by examining original data from 2018, gained through large-N survey research on over 300 active interest groups, including business groups, firms, professional organisations, NGOs, citizen groups and consultancies. The analysis focusses on four key venues of policymaking which lobbyists seek to influence: the media, government departments, the Dáil and state agencies. We find that lobbying access in Ireland is similar to other West European countries, but also different. Organisations with higher organisational capacity and that hire revolving door lobbyists are more likely to be frequent visitors of almost all arenas compared to other groups. This is similar to existing accounts of bias in lobbying access reported in other countries. However, in contrast to scholarship focussing on other European political systems, access is not biased in favour of economic groups. The analysis fills an important empirical gap in the quantitative study of lobbying and adds an otherwise understudied perspective of non-state actor engagement in Irish politics.","PeriodicalId":45746,"journal":{"name":"Irish Political Studies","volume":"38 1","pages":"60 - 91"},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2022-05-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47503839","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-05-20DOI: 10.1080/07907184.2022.2078033
L. Keenan, Gail Mcelroy
ABSTRACT Interventions aimed at increasing women’s numeric representation in politics tend to solve the problem by tackling a lack of demand among gatekeepers. However, even where there is an increase in demand, it is still important to consider what is happening on the supply-side; that is, the circumstances under which individuals will put themselves forward to run for office. One factor that has been identified as an important predictor of whether someone will choose to do so is whether they receive encouragement to run. This paper explores whether such encouragement is gendered. We investigate this question using a unique data set of candidates who ran in the 2019 Irish local elections. We find that female candidates received more encouragement to run than their male counterparts and that they were also more likely to receive such encouragement from particular sources (elected politicians, spouses, family members).
{"title":"Who wants women to run? an investigation of gender differences in patterns of support among Irish local election candidates","authors":"L. Keenan, Gail Mcelroy","doi":"10.1080/07907184.2022.2078033","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/07907184.2022.2078033","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Interventions aimed at increasing women’s numeric representation in politics tend to solve the problem by tackling a lack of demand among gatekeepers. However, even where there is an increase in demand, it is still important to consider what is happening on the supply-side; that is, the circumstances under which individuals will put themselves forward to run for office. One factor that has been identified as an important predictor of whether someone will choose to do so is whether they receive encouragement to run. This paper explores whether such encouragement is gendered. We investigate this question using a unique data set of candidates who ran in the 2019 Irish local elections. We find that female candidates received more encouragement to run than their male counterparts and that they were also more likely to receive such encouragement from particular sources (elected politicians, spouses, family members).","PeriodicalId":45746,"journal":{"name":"Irish Political Studies","volume":"37 1","pages":"477 - 498"},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2022-05-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48863036","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-05-18DOI: 10.1080/07907184.2022.2078032
Luke Field
ABSTRACT Since the We the Citizens project of 2011, Ireland has begun to establish itself as a world leader in the use of national deliberative fora for considering policy change. In many ways, it marks a radical departure from the tightly-controlled, executive-dominated parliamentary politics of Dáil Éireann. Thus far, innovative deliberative processes have had a direct influence on two hugely transformative moral/social referendums: the marriage equality referendum of 2015 (recommended by the 2013–14 Convention on the Constitution) and the abortion referendum of 2018 (recommended by the Citizens’ Assembly in 2017). With the extensive recommendations of the recent Citizens’ Assembly on Gender Equality, there may yet be more deliberation-led social transformation to come. This paper considers the involvement and influence of women in Ireland’s deliberative processes and their contribution to the country’s ongoing social transformation. Particular attention is paid to the much greater descriptive representation offered by these sortition-formed assemblies compared to Ireland’s electoral bodies, and their record of delivering ‘woman-friendly’ outcomes is assessed. Consideration is also given to the possibility that these processes may resolve some of the tension between descriptive and substantive representation through women’s direct participation in deliberative decision-making.
{"title":"At the table: women’s participation and influence in Ireland’s first decade of deliberative-democratic innovation","authors":"Luke Field","doi":"10.1080/07907184.2022.2078032","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/07907184.2022.2078032","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Since the We the Citizens project of 2011, Ireland has begun to establish itself as a world leader in the use of national deliberative fora for considering policy change. In many ways, it marks a radical departure from the tightly-controlled, executive-dominated parliamentary politics of Dáil Éireann. Thus far, innovative deliberative processes have had a direct influence on two hugely transformative moral/social referendums: the marriage equality referendum of 2015 (recommended by the 2013–14 Convention on the Constitution) and the abortion referendum of 2018 (recommended by the Citizens’ Assembly in 2017). With the extensive recommendations of the recent Citizens’ Assembly on Gender Equality, there may yet be more deliberation-led social transformation to come. This paper considers the involvement and influence of women in Ireland’s deliberative processes and their contribution to the country’s ongoing social transformation. Particular attention is paid to the much greater descriptive representation offered by these sortition-formed assemblies compared to Ireland’s electoral bodies, and their record of delivering ‘woman-friendly’ outcomes is assessed. Consideration is also given to the possibility that these processes may resolve some of the tension between descriptive and substantive representation through women’s direct participation in deliberative decision-making.","PeriodicalId":45746,"journal":{"name":"Irish Political Studies","volume":"37 1","pages":"524 - 547"},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2022-05-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49233207","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-05-14DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-47587-1
B. Flynn
{"title":"Ireland and the climate crisis","authors":"B. Flynn","doi":"10.1007/978-3-030-47587-1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-47587-1","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":45746,"journal":{"name":"Irish Political Studies","volume":"38 1","pages":"280 - 281"},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2022-05-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1007/978-3-030-47587-1","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45254516","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-05-12DOI: 10.1080/07907184.2022.2074978
J. Hepworth
Abstract Examining the writings of more than 150 IRA prisoners, this article explains why a majority of jailed republicans supported the movement’s strategic reorientation between the anti-criminalisation protests of the late 1970s and the Good Friday Agreement of 1998. First, it argues, experiences of prison protests, culminating in the hunger strike of 1981, inclined prisoners to endorse electoral interventions to counter their isolation. Sinn Féin’s subsequent successes impelled prisoners to back electoralism more constructively, envisioning an all-Ireland ‘pan-nationalist’ front. By the end of the 1980s, many republican prisoners regarded tactical eclecticism as vital for their campaign’s advance. Second, the article contends, throughout the 1980s and 1990s, prisoners pragmatically approved new methods as open-ended experiments. Electoralism, pan-nationalism, and, in the 1990s, peace talks were supposed to aggregate and strengthen the struggle. Tactics were dispensable, and worthwhile only insofar as they enhanced the perceived prospects of victory. By the Good Friday Agreement, prisoners espousing a transitional, constitutional route to Irish unification regarded even the IRA’s ‘armed struggle’ as suspensible. Woven through prisoners’ voluminous acclaim for tactical adaptability, traditions of intra-movement discipline and unity cohered the bulk of the IRA’s prison population.
{"title":"‘Progress will not occur if we continually adopt positions of principle’: Irish republican prisoners and strategic reorientation, c.1976–1998","authors":"J. Hepworth","doi":"10.1080/07907184.2022.2074978","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/07907184.2022.2074978","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Examining the writings of more than 150 IRA prisoners, this article explains why a majority of jailed republicans supported the movement’s strategic reorientation between the anti-criminalisation protests of the late 1970s and the Good Friday Agreement of 1998. First, it argues, experiences of prison protests, culminating in the hunger strike of 1981, inclined prisoners to endorse electoral interventions to counter their isolation. Sinn Féin’s subsequent successes impelled prisoners to back electoralism more constructively, envisioning an all-Ireland ‘pan-nationalist’ front. By the end of the 1980s, many republican prisoners regarded tactical eclecticism as vital for their campaign’s advance. Second, the article contends, throughout the 1980s and 1990s, prisoners pragmatically approved new methods as open-ended experiments. Electoralism, pan-nationalism, and, in the 1990s, peace talks were supposed to aggregate and strengthen the struggle. Tactics were dispensable, and worthwhile only insofar as they enhanced the perceived prospects of victory. By the Good Friday Agreement, prisoners espousing a transitional, constitutional route to Irish unification regarded even the IRA’s ‘armed struggle’ as suspensible. Woven through prisoners’ voluminous acclaim for tactical adaptability, traditions of intra-movement discipline and unity cohered the bulk of the IRA’s prison population.","PeriodicalId":45746,"journal":{"name":"Irish Political Studies","volume":"38 1","pages":"161 - 188"},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2022-05-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48161978","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-05-12DOI: 10.1080/07907184.2022.2076042
Teodora Yovcheva
climate change as an urgency, there are some independently elected representatives, a very distinctive feature of the Irish electoral system, who have openly toyed with climate scepticism. Moreover, it would be naïve not to appreciate that powerful Irish interest groups remain influential and who systematically favour carbon-intensive activities. These are not least organised farming interests, but also state agencies or elites, and even multi-national tech giants who have made Ireland a global hub for energy-hungry data centres. In this regard, the chapter by Clare Watson on community-led renewable energy projects is a deft exploration of how the established Irish energy policy insiders have jealously guarded any scope for innovation by simply not providing the policy incentives for outsiders to offer alternatives. Equally insightful is an intriguing chapter by Declan Fahy, which explores the deeper social attitudes and ideological basis for Irish approaches to climate change. Here Ireland fits within the weaker, more nebulous, varieties of ecological modernisation, not least because Ireland was a latecomer to modern economic and social development, with pastoralist, autarkic, nationalism casting a long shadow for much of the first century of Irish independence. Obviously, this review cannot do justice to all the individual contributions in this volume, but one can end by noting this book represents the most comprehensive and thought-provoking survey of Irish responses to climate change to date. Moreover, many of the chapters, and the volume overall, end on something of an optimistic note by suggesting that the tide has turned towards engagement and greater leadership. Perhaps the Irish, and their political system, have finally realised it is time to face the zombie apocalypse of climate change after all?
{"title":"Party system closure. Party alliances, government alternatives and democracy in Europe","authors":"Teodora Yovcheva","doi":"10.1080/07907184.2022.2076042","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/07907184.2022.2076042","url":null,"abstract":"climate change as an urgency, there are some independently elected representatives, a very distinctive feature of the Irish electoral system, who have openly toyed with climate scepticism. Moreover, it would be naïve not to appreciate that powerful Irish interest groups remain influential and who systematically favour carbon-intensive activities. These are not least organised farming interests, but also state agencies or elites, and even multi-national tech giants who have made Ireland a global hub for energy-hungry data centres. In this regard, the chapter by Clare Watson on community-led renewable energy projects is a deft exploration of how the established Irish energy policy insiders have jealously guarded any scope for innovation by simply not providing the policy incentives for outsiders to offer alternatives. Equally insightful is an intriguing chapter by Declan Fahy, which explores the deeper social attitudes and ideological basis for Irish approaches to climate change. Here Ireland fits within the weaker, more nebulous, varieties of ecological modernisation, not least because Ireland was a latecomer to modern economic and social development, with pastoralist, autarkic, nationalism casting a long shadow for much of the first century of Irish independence. Obviously, this review cannot do justice to all the individual contributions in this volume, but one can end by noting this book represents the most comprehensive and thought-provoking survey of Irish responses to climate change to date. Moreover, many of the chapters, and the volume overall, end on something of an optimistic note by suggesting that the tide has turned towards engagement and greater leadership. Perhaps the Irish, and their political system, have finally realised it is time to face the zombie apocalypse of climate change after all?","PeriodicalId":45746,"journal":{"name":"Irish Political Studies","volume":"38 1","pages":"281 - 283"},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2022-05-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43801840","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}