Ethnography and Political Science: Agricultural Politics in Eire
| Author | Thomas M. Wilson |
| DOI | 10.1111/j.1467-9256.1990.tb00171.x |
| Published date | 01 April 1990 |
| Date | 01 April 1990 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
Politics (1990) lO(1) pp9-16
ETHNOGRAPHYAND
POLITICAL SCIENCE:
AGRICULTURAL
POLITICS
IN
EIRE
THOMAS
M.
WILSON
THE
EUROPEAN Community (EC)'s impact
on
the institutions and values
of people and communities at the local level
has
seldom
been
investigated.
This
has
been
especially true of ethnographers, who have failed
to
recognise
the implications of EC policies. The irony is that ethnographers have
as
an
essential aspect of their research their participation in community life,
often
for a year or more,
so
could
chronicle these changes. This article, based
in
part
on
field research, relates the changing role of
a
small group of commercial
family farmers
to
regional and national political cultures which have been
redefinedwithin the EC.'
It
is
also
an example ofhow longitudinal ethnographic
case studies can complement the research
of
political scientists interested in
regional and national political processes.2
Ireland
and
the
EC
The Republic of Ireland's entrance into the
EC
in
1973
usheredin the
greatest
period
of
socioeconomic growth since the Irish government ended
its
protectionist policies
in
the
1950s.
The
CAP,
EC
loans,
grants
and subsidies,
and foreign capitalists eager
to
establish
a
base
in
the EC helped Ireland
achieve the highest growth
rate
in the EC of the Nine, a growth
rate
rate
however matched, ifnot surpassed, by Ireland's foreign debt, making her one
of
the greatest debtor nations
per
capita in Western Europe. Since EC
accession Irish governments have not
only
had
to
deal with the impact of EC
economic and political integration but the redefinition of many traditional
political relationships with interest groups and party supporters. The Ireland
of
the
1980s
has
been
beset with up
to
20
per
cent unemployment,
a
stagnating industrial base, breakdowns
in
the structure of agriculture, and
the return of emigration
as
the panacea for the
ills
of the nation's
young.
National governments have failed because they promised either
too
much or
too
little
to
an electorate reeling from economic blows from which their
politicians seemed powerless
to
protect them. Ironically, many of these same
politicians still
point
to
the
1970s
as
an
example
of
what national politicians
can
achieve for their people
in
an Ireland bereft of
its
traditional economic
dependencies and newly 'Europeanised'.
In
the
first
decade of
EC
membership foreign capital, principally from the
United States and Japan,
was
attracted
to
Ireland.
Irish
agricultural
production was redirected
to
continental markets,
(lessening
dependence
on
9
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