Cabinet Government in Ireland
| Published date | 01 March 1968 |
| Author | Basil Chubb |
| DOI | 10.1177/002085236803400101 |
| Date | 01 March 1968 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Cabinet
Government
in
Ireland
by
Basil
CHUBB,
Professor
of
Political
Science,
Trinity
College,
Dublin
UDC
342.518
(417)
I
The
political
institutions
of
Ireland
re-
semble
the
British
model
on
which
they
were
based
and
Irish
government
and
politics
are
conducted
in
a
manner
which
shows
clearly
the
cultural
influence
of
Britain.
Ireland,
there-
fore,
belongs
in
the
category
of
the
British
Commonwealth
or
former
Commonwealth
states
to
which
the
’Westminster
model’
was
successfully
exported.
The
adoption
of
British
political
forms
and
practices
was
natural
and
indeed
inevitable,
given
the
fact
that
Irish
people
had
for
long
been
exposed
to
British
political,
social
and
economic
domination
and
had
absorbed
much
of
the
political
culture
of
the
British.
As
the
franchise
was
extended
in
Great
Britain
in
the
19th
century,
so,
too,
it
was
extended
in
Ireland :
as
educational
and
other
social
services
were
provided
for
the
British
people,
so,
too,
for
the
Irish :
when
a
free,
and
subsequently
a
popular,
press
developed
in
Britain,
so,
too,
it
developed
in
Ireland.
Thus,
at
independence,
Ireland
was
an
ad-
vanced,
western
country
with
standards
com-
parable
to
those
of
the
United
Kingdom
and
with
a
population
which
accepted
liberal-
democratic
values
and,
more
particularly,
Brit-
ish
political
ways
because
they
knew
no
other.
To
all
this
must
be
added
the
fact
that,
at
the
moment
of
victory,
the
Irish
independance
movement
split,
precipitating
a
major
political
division
which
issued
first
in
civil
war
and
subsequently
in
a
strong
tendency
for
parties
and
politicians
to
be
polarized
(pro-
and
anti-
the
independence
Treaty
with
Britain),
and
to
engage
in
strictly
competitive
politics
rather
than
to
adopt
coalition
electoral
and
par-
liamentary
strategies.
The
result
of
these
two
circumstances
-
the
political,
economic
and
cultural
blanketing
of
the
Irish
by
the
British
and
the
split
over
the
Treaty
-
was
that
Ireland
adopted
a
cabinet
system
of
government
similar
to
the
British
and
engaged
in
the
bipartisan
politics
to
operate
it
in
a
very
similar
manner.
Cabinet-
Parliament-party
relationships
developed
on
lines
similar
to
those
in
Great
Britain,
which
is
to
say
that
a
monopoly
of
initiative
in,
and
management
of,
central
government
business
rests
with
a
cabinet
(called
’the
Government’
in
the
Constitution
and
in
common
parlance)
consisting
of
ministers
who
are
at
the
same
time
party
leaders
and
parliamentary
leaders
heading
a
party,
or
occasionally
a
group
of
parties
and
individuals,
in
the
Oireachtas
(Par-
liament)
who
consistently
support
them.
This
party
or
group
is
a
majority
of
the
Dail
(House
of
Commons)
and
forms
the
’Government’
side.
It
faces
an
’Opposition’
which,
though
not
usually
perhaps
as
coherent
or
unified
as
’Her
Majesty’s
Opposition’
in
the
United
Kingdom,
since
there
have
always
been
more
than
two
parties
in
the
Dail,
is
still
consistent
enough
in
its
behaviour
for
there
to
have
been
established
a
clear
’ins
and
outs’
pattern.
As
a
result,
general
elections
have
tended
to
be
concerned
above
all
with
the
issue :
who
is
to
be
the
next
government ?
Since
the
early
30’s
Fianna
Fail,
the
largest
party,
has
attracted
the
support
of
between
42
%
and
52
%
of
the
first
preference
votes
at
general
elections
and
has held
office
for
all
but
six
years
since
1932.
Naturally,
there-
fore,
it
is
strictly
competitive
in
its
attitude
to
other
parties
and
it
thus
provides
one
unchang-
ing
alternative
for
the
voters.
The
other
alternative
is
by
no
means
as
clear.
The
two
major
opposition
parties,
Fine
Gael
and
the
Labour
Party,
have
twice
combined
to
hold
office
(1948-51,
1954-57)
but,
disenchanted
by
their
experiences,
they
have
from
the
late
50’s
consistently
refused
coalition.
Since
Fine
Gael
commands
the
support
of
only
one-third
of
the
electorate
and
Labour
has
never
at-
tracted
more
than
one-sixth,
it
is
hard
to
see
what
positive
alternative
to
a
Fianna
Fail
government
there
is
at
present.
Neverthe-
less,
elections
have
always
been
overwhelm-
ingly
and
overtly
a
process
of
choosing
a
government.
This
being
so,
and
with
stable
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