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Irish Politics > Constitutional and Political Reform > Flashcards

Constitutional and Political Reform Flashcards

1
Q

What are constitutional and political reforms ?

A

“Reform of a political institution or political practice with a view to changing how something operates”

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2
Q

Identify the following dimension’s scale of influence.

  1. Institutional
  2. Behavioural
  3. Cultural
A

Dimensions

  1. Institutional: Involves a change to, addition of, replacement of an institution or practice
  2. Behavioural: Should impact on the behaviour of individuals
  3. Cultural: Needs to be of sufficient scale to affect a change
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3
Q

What are the different types of scope and intent of reforms ?

A
  1. Scope
  • must be sufficient to effect change
  • does not have to require a constitutional reform
  1. Intent
  • distractive intent (key jangling)
  • constructive intent
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4
Q

Rank the types of institutional reform in Europe from most to least common ?

A
  1. Decentralization
  2. Electoral reform
  3. Public subsidies
  4. Parliament reform
  5. Suffrage access
  6. Direct election
  7. Direct democracy

Total of 173 attempts at institutional reform.

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5
Q

Discuss political reform as a novel phenomenon.

A
  • The emergence of political reform internationally
  • Entering an era of ‘democratic transformation’
  • Democratic innovations as a new sub-discipline in political science
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6
Q

Describe the first wave of the democratic reform.

A
  1. Dahl’s poliarchy (power invested in multiple people)
  2. Introduction of election to most offices
  3. Mass suffrage extensions
  4. Freedom for all parties to compete in elections

VOTE CENTRED DEMOCRACY

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7
Q

Describe the second wave of the democratic reform.

A
  1. Introduction of election to even more offices (elected mayors, regional assemblies)
  2. Citizen initiated mechanisms of direct democracy
  3. Greater competition between and within parties
  4. Greater engagement with administrative processes
  5. Direct citizen engagement with policy and institutional debates (assemblies, juries, participatory budgets)

VOICE CENTRED DEMOCRACY

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8
Q

Ireland is said to be a “late entrant” to democratic reform.

List and describe its first step towards reform.

A
  1. Increased public funding for political parties (1997; 2001)
  2. Creation of regional bodies to administer allocation of EU regional funds (1991; 1998)
  3. Ending of ‘dual mandate’ (where TDs could also be local councilors) (2003)
  4. Introduction of legislation to allow for direct election of mayors (2010) – very slow implementation
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9
Q

What halted this development of democratic reform in Ireland ?

A

Two main events;

2008: The Great Recession

  • triggered an economic & political crisis in Ireland
  • making the 2011 election the “political reform” election

2016: hung Dáil

  • Focus on Dáil reform
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10
Q

Describe this “election of political reform” that was 2011.

A

Worked on increasing three main elements;

  1. Accountability
  2. Transparency
  3. Centralization

Citizens (majority) had marked positive attitudes to the prospects of:

  • reducing the size of the Dáil
  • appointing expert ministers
  • having ministers resign as TDs
  • granting more power to local governments
  • abolish the Seanad

Minority wanted to see;

  • more women candidates
  • reform of the electoral system

VERY FOCUSED ON POLITICAL REFORM

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11
Q

How would the suggested reforms of 2012 compare to that of 2011?

A

Paved the way for social reforms.

Issues with which citizens are increasingly concerned are:

Majority:

  • voting rights for emigrants
  • abolish the Seanad (again)
  • same sex marriage

Minority:

  • reduction of President term
  • having two ministers outside the Dáil
  • remove the blasphemy ban

Mixed reviews for the:

  • population to trigger referendums
  • delete women’s domestic role in the constitutions

Stance against:

  • reducing the voting age to 17
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12
Q

On a piece of paper, recreate the schema representing the changes implemented in 2011.

A

See the schema on your desktop, titled “Political Reform of 2011 - Ireland”

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13
Q

What are the primary characteristics of the constitutional reforms in Ireland to-date ?

A
  1. Varying contexts (ad hoc initiatives, referendums, or constitutional review)
  2. Citizen involvement (through referendum votes or mini publics)
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14
Q

What were the important factors of the 1967 constitutional review ?

A

1967 - Committee on the Constitution

  • Informal; involves TDs and Senators
  • Review of constitution
  • No political reforms; but had some impact (like its influence on the position of Catholic church)
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15
Q

What were the important factors of the 1996 constitutional review ?

A

1996 - Constitution Review Group

  • Experts appointed by government
  • Detailed ‘tidying up’ recommendations
  • Ultimately ignored
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16
Q

What were the important factors of the 1996-2002 constitutional review ?

A

1996-2002 - All-Party Committees on the Constitution

  • Involved parliamentarians
  • Reconfigured after each election
  • Produced 10 reports
  • Ultimately ignored
17
Q

What were the important factors of the 2007-2011 constitutional review ?

A

2007-11 - Joint Committee on the Constitution

  • Same format, different title
  • Produced 5 reports
  • Ignored, except for the recommendation to establish a citizens’ assembly
18
Q

What were the important factors of the ongoing constitutional review (started in 2012) ?

A

2012— - Constitutional review by deliberative mini-public

  • 2012-14: Convention on the Constitution
  • 2016-18: Irish Citizens’ Assembly
  • 2019-21: Irish Citizens’ Assembly on Gender Equality
  • Programme for Government (2020) proposes 5+ other citizens’ assemblies
19
Q

What is the role for citizens in all these constitutional and political changes ?

A
  1. Representative democracy: voting for parties promoting constitutional change
  2. Participatory democracy: groups campaigning for constitutional change
  3. Direct democracy: voting in referendums for constitutional change
  4. Deliberative democracy: participating in, being aware of, and reacting to deliberative mini-publics
20
Q

Ireland is said to be a “political system in flux,” describe its characteristics and cross-reference your answers with the table drafted by the professor.

A

See the table on desk top, titled:

“Ireland - Majoritarian and Consensus Democracy”

21
Q

What is representative democracy ?

A

Representative democracy - delegate decision-making powers to public representatives chosen at elections.

22
Q

What are the impacts of economic turmoil on Ireland in 2008 ?

A

Economic turmoil = huge pressures on the state institutions

  • Call for constitutional overhaul
  • Impacts on parties (associated with the fall of Fianna Fail)
23
Q

What is the response of political parties to this straining of political institutions in 2008 ?

A

Fine Gael - changing cabinet = necessary to restore the Irish faith in the government. Need fundamental change of the structures and systems to improve the quality of governance experienced by the country

Econ crisis = Fianna Fáil - green coalition broke, catastrophic performance at the 2011 general election. - reversal of Ireland’s long standing political order

Fine Game-Labour coalition took office - political reform = center of the agenda

24
Q

What does Kirby believe to be at the root of this economic crisis ?

A

Lack of sustainability.

Crisis rooted in the circumstances that facilitated rapid economic growth.

The rapid pace of economic growth bave been excessively dependent on foreign direct investment and construction rather than promoting balanced development.

State actions lead to a housing boom but failed to regulate the banking sector.

25
Q

How is responsible for this lack of sustainability ?

A

Politicians and bankers responsible, allowed bubble to become dangerously inflated - housing bubble had enough past data and history to know this would happen.

26
Q

What are the impacts of this lack of sustainability ?

A

Lead to growing socio-economic disparities - some gained from this pace of growth and others were left behind.

Growing problem of relative poverty and homelessness in an otherwise prosperous Ireland.

27
Q

What is the additional pressure on Irish institutions throughout the economic crisis which stems from the EU ?

A

Because of economic development and EU expansion - result in large immigrant populations,

Challenge to which the gov. was slow and inexperienced to respond to. - because of the absence of policy

28
Q

Where did this lack of policy or skill to address these challenges stem from ?

A

Focus on incremental problem-solving instead of values-based long-term planning

Because of this, they failed to address long term developmental issues and quality of life issues (like income inequality)

29
Q

What was the impact of this oversight of quality of life issues ?

A

Public cynicism, promoted the view that a small number of elite prioritized its needs over that of the people

End of 2010s - pressures, consensus emerged that although 2008 crisis was global and therefore some elements were out of the gov. hands, flawed political decisions played a big part in the way this impacted Ireland

30
Q

What factors explain the defects of Irish political defects ?

A
  1. Quality of political representation - who is representing and how much do they engage - find that mechanisms of accountability are weak
  2. Quality of public administration and policy advice that guide decision making
  3. The way fiscal policy is made - flagged by the EU
31
Q

What is the main consequence of the identification of such defects ?

A

Pursuit of constitutional and institutional cures to Ireland poli. decision making ills continues - Fine Gael-Labour made institutional reform the centre of their program - elected as a coalition in March 2011

32
Q

Who is the first group to blame for the absence of strategic thinking and long-term planning ?

A

Politicians

Associated to inaptitude and dishonestly.

  • Policies were irresponsible, over reliant on the market and insufficient political will to shape development.
  • Also a problem of which forces sway politics - lack of will to direct policy lead to the catholic church retaining major influence in health and education policy, and banks/big businesses lobbies controlling financial policy.
33
Q

Who is the second group to blame for the absence of strategic thinking and long-term planning ?

A

Bureaucrats - too deferential to political and business interests, concentrates on local rather than national concerns.

34
Q

Who is the third group to blame for the absence of strategic thinking and long-term planning ?

A

The political system - rewards short-term planning and problem solving

Ex: Senior officials neutralize projects in pursuit of short term popularity.

35
Q

Who is the fourth group to blame for the absence of strategic thinking and long-term planning ?

A

The electoral system - STV reinforces populist tendencies - pursuit of broad consensus rather than encouraging politicians to make hard choices - assists clientalist practices

Others say it prevents the formation of strong single party government - turn political competition into a “dutch auction”

36
Q

What is the contrasting perspective concerning the organ behind Ireland’s incapability of politically absorbing the financial crisis of 2008 ?

A

Civil service, political leadership, electoral system and constitution are alright, especially if using comparative political theory.

Instead, identify the character of elite and mass political culture as a key obstacle to efficient government.

Therefore, hyper-charged globalized economy failed because system was not developed to sustain it.

Political governance and public morality were underdeveloped

37
Q

What are the five elements that should have been put in place to sustain this globalized economy ?

A
  1. A shift from a religious authority to public/civil morality
  2. The idea that the state should be objective and impersonal - not a network of private and mutual relationships / obligations
  3. Law as a neutral and universal check of behaviour
  4. Belief that independent parliament exists to legislate rather than to service clients
  5. Goal is to make gov. accountable, not to sustain it at all costs

These factors are largely cultural rather than structural - therefore, many feel that constitutional arrangement and reform would have limited impacts - so is it worth it?

38
Q

What are the different constitutional reforms that took place in Ireland ?

A
  1. Constitution Committee 1967
  2. Constitutional Review Group 1996
  3. Parliamentarians consider recommendation
  4. All party Oireachtas Committee on the Constitution, produced 10 reports between 1997-2006
  5. After 2007 general election - Joint Oireachtas Committee (same thing different name) - work ended 2011, produced 5 other reports

Irish Politics (11 decks)

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