Q: The concept of political culture is often used to explain a variety of features in the Irish political system. What, if any, has been the impact of Irish political culture on the political system in contemporary Ireland?.
Representative democracy is built on the idea that the people of a particular country choose the few men and women who will lead the country guided by the values, opinions and morals of the majority. This means that the political culture is the base for the political system, a guideline to follow and to be respected by the politicians. In Ireland history has everything to do with the political views people hold and has contributed to both the political culture and political system in a major way. There are scores of elements that form what is known as political culture but I shall limit myself to looking at the most important features- socio-economic change and conservatism, the effect of British colonialism and finally, religion- which have had a marked impact on the kind of a political system Ireland has today. .
In Ireland, a liberal democracy, there is a close relationship between the political culture- the values and influences on people- and the different political institutions which strengthen the state's structure. As Coakley argues, this type of intimacy makes any kind of change in the political system protracted as it depends on people's values which tend to change slowly, if at all (Coakley, 1992: 35). It would be too black-and-white to just insist that Ireland's political system is solely shaped by the people and represents their views on politics. The state does exist on its own in the form of political institutions and is an ever-changing power. It has the ability to influence people's opinions which then form the political culture. Possible ways to do so lie, for example, in the field of education. Such subjects as history and civics taught in school help form some of the core values people acquire as children and then carry through life (Coakley 1992: 33-35).
