Career Patterns in the Irish Political Elite

1973 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 213-228 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. S. Cohan

In 1919, three years after the Easter Rising in Dublin, a revolutionary government was established in Ireland. This government, the Dail Eireann, was the forerunner of the Irish Free State that ultimately resulted from the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1922. Slightly more than fifty years have elapsed since the union of Ireland and Great Britain was formally dissolved and, in that period of time, many changes have occurred in both the social and political systems of Ireland. Not the least of these changes has been the passing of one elite generation from the political scene and the emergence of another.

Author(s):  
Mārtiņš Kaprāns

Abstract This chapter explores the transnational aspects of identity and the long distance belonging of Latvian migrants in Great Britain. In particular, it focuses on the discourses and practices of long distance belonging to Latvia. The article is based on a comparative analysis of The Emigrant Communities of Latvia survey data as well as semi-structured interviews with Latvian migrants in Great Britain. The analytical sections are organised so as to discuss the three main analytical contexts of long distance belonging: ethno-cultural, political and social. In the ethno-cultural context, migrants who identify themselves as ethnic Latvians rediscover and strengthen their links to the Latvian cultural space, its traditions and its ways of collective self-understanding. Conversely, the absence of this cultural capital among Russian-speaking migrants from Latvia advances their faster assimilation into British society. The political context of long distance belonging reveals high levels of distrust of the Latvian government and the migrants’ overall disappointment with Latvia’s political elite, as well as political apathy. Nevertheless, Latvian migrants in the United Kingdom are discovering new motivation and fresh opportunities to influence the political reality in Latvia and that has increased participation in Latvian national elections. The social context of long distance belonging, in turn, enables new forms of allegiance towards Latvia. These are manifested in philanthropic initiatives, in participation in various interest groups and in regular interest in what is happening in Latvia. The social context does not put the migrants’ activities into ethno-cultural or political frameworks, but encourages moral responsibility towards the people of Latvia.


1974 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 250-252
Author(s):  
A. S. Cohan

In a recent article in this Journal several conclusions concerning career patterns in the Irish political elite were drawn A.S. Cohan, ‘Career Patterns in the Irish Political Elite’, II (1972), 213–28. First, the revolutionary generation was shown to have effectively passed from the political scene. This was bound to happen with the passage of so many years since the war for independence. Second, the local orientation of the members of the Dail was shown to be very important even if TDs were members of the political elite, i.e., the Government. Third, with regard to a point discussed elsewhere but relevant to the above, the family connections of members of the elite were shown to be particularly important to their careers. The results of the parliamentary election of 28 February 1973 and of the presidential election of 31 May 1973 have in no way altered these conclusions.


1935 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 571-593 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karl Loewenstein

Looking over the political scene of contemporary Europe, we observe that the European states are aligned in two fundamentally antagonistic camps of political institutions and ideals. Democracy and liberal institutions are still in force in Great Britain, the Irish Free State, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, the Scandinavian countries of Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Finland, in Switzerland, and in Czechoslovakia; while autocracies at present embrace Russia, Turkey, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Austria, Poland, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Rumania, and Hungary; also among the Baltic states, at least Latvia and Estonia may be so classified. As for Spain and Greece, notwithstanding that democratic constitutions are nominally still in existence, it is at least open to doubt whether or not they at the present moment should be classified as democracies. By far the greater part of European territory and of European population is under dictatorial rule of one type or another. It might seem, therefore, appropriate to weigh the possibilities of a further expansion of the systems of government which, loosely but rather adequately, are termed dictatorships or autocracies.


Urban History ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 47 (4) ◽  
pp. 568-588
Author(s):  
Frederik Buylaert ◽  
Jelten Baguet ◽  
Janna Everaert

AbstractThis article provides a comparative analysis of four large towns in the Southern Low Countries between c. 1350 and c. 1550. Combining the data on Ghent, Bruges and Antwerp – each of which is discussed in greater detail in the articles in this special section – with recent research on Bruges, the authors argue against the historiographical trend in which the political history of late medieval towns is supposedly dominated by a trend towards oligarchy. Rather than a closure of the ruling class, the four towns show a high turnover in the social composition of the political elite, and a consistent trend towards aristocracy, in which an increasingly large number of aldermen enjoyed noble status. The intensity of these trends differed from town to town, and was tied to different institutional configurations as well as different economic and political developments in each of the four towns.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shamall Ahmad

The flaws and major flaws in the political systems represent one of the main motives that push the political elite towards making fundamental reforms, especially if those reforms have become necessary matters so that: Postponing them or achieving them affects the survival of the system and the political entity. Thus, repair is an internal cumulative process. It is cumulative based on the accumulated experience of the historical experience of the same political elite that decided to carry out reforms, and it is also an internal process because the decision to reform comes from the political elite that run the political process. There is no doubt that one means of political reform is to push the masses towards participation in political life. Changing the electoral system, through electoral laws issued by the legislative establishment, may be the beginning of political reform (or vice versa), taking into account the uncertainty of the political process, especially in societies that suffer from the decline of democratic values, represented by the processes of election from one cycle to another. Based on the foregoing, this paper seeks to analyze the relationship between the Electoral and political system, in particular, tracking and studying the Iraqi experience from the first parliamentary session until the issuance of the Election Law No. (9) for the year (2020).


2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 88
Author(s):  
Galina Viktorovna Morozova ◽  
Artur Romanovich Gavrilov ◽  
Bulat Ildarovich Yakupov

If we sum up the tasks facing the Russian state in relation to the young generation, then all of them are associated with its harmonious inclusion in the social and political development of the country. At the normative level, the current need is declared for young people to form active citizenship and democratic political culture, which is possible only in a constant and equal dialogue between the authorities and young people. Ensuring the interaction of the younger generation with the political elite presupposes the existence of certain conditions - the creation and effective functioning of the information infrastructure of youth policy, as well as the conduct of an open active information policy. The article describes the results of a study of the political status of students of the capital of Tatarstan - Kazan, in particular, such parameters as youth interest in political information, trust in the sources of this information, and political participation. Together with the data of secondary studies, this made it possible to characterize the youth sector of political communication, identify the existing difficulties in the interaction of the government and youth, in particular, identify some difficulties in receiving and disseminating political information among the youth, which impede the development of a democratic political culture and the accumulation of social capital of the young generation.


1973 ◽  
Vol 23 ◽  
pp. 1-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. A. L. Morgan

The rise and fall of the house of York is a story which sits uneasily towards both revolutionary and evolutionary interpretations of fifteenth-century England. Indeed, in general, attempts to tidy away the political process of Lancastrian and Yorkist times into the displacement of one type of régime by another always fail to convince. They do so because as a régime neither Lancaster nor York kept still long enough to be impaled on a categorical definition. The political life and death of both dynasties composes the pattern, changing yet constant, of a set of variations on the theme of an aristocratic society pre-dominantly kingship-focused and centripetal rather than locality-focused and centrifugal. In so far as the political process conformed to the social order, the households of the great were the nodal connections in which relationships of mutual dependence cohered. Those retinues, fellowships, affinities (for the vocabulary of the time was rich in terms overlapping but with nuances of descriptive emphasis) have now been studied both in their general conformation and in several particular instances; I have here attempted for the central affinity of the king over one generation not a formal group portrait but a sketch focused on the middle distance of figures in a landscape. The meagreness of household records in the strict sense is a problem we must learn to live with. But it would seem sensible to make a virtue of necessity and follow the life-line of what evidence there is to the conclusion that if an understanding of the household is only possible by attending to its wider context, so an understanding of that wider political scene requires some attention to the household.


Author(s):  
Pradeep K. Chhibber ◽  
Rahul Verma

Ideology is transmitted to citizens through multiple pathways, each of which provide heuristic cues to ordinary voters. Citizens form their political views through the efforts of political parties and the political elite; their socialization, especially the kind of education they receive; the media; and through their activities in the social organization including religious associations. In India, those who are more religiously active, get their news from local and vernacular media, and do not speak English language are less likely to support either an active role for the state in transforming social norms or making special provision for some groups. Indians who are members of civil society, consume English-language media, and speak English are more likely to favor statism and recognition.


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