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POLITICAL CLEAVAGES, PARTY POLITICS AND URBANISATION IN IRELAND: THE CASE OF THE PERIPHERY‐DOMINATED CENTRE *
Author(s) -
GARVIN TOM
Publication year - 1974
Publication title -
european journal of political research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.267
H-Index - 95
eISSN - 1475-6765
pISSN - 0304-4130
DOI - 10.1111/j.1475-6765.1974.tb01238.x
Subject(s) - polity , politics , nationalism , ideology , political science , political economy , context (archaeology) , irish , sociology , law , geography , linguistics , philosophy , archaeology
Irish political parties cannot be easily fitted into a conventional left‐right framework. The Lipset‐Rokkan centre–periphery concept is employed to explain this situation, and, in particular, to throw light on the persistent success of Fianna Fáil, the nationalist‐populist party which has dominated the system since 1932. It is argued that Ireland affords an example of a polity in which the political concerns and style of the rural periphery came to “invade” and dominate the urban centre for more than a generation. Evidence from a study of urban party activists indicates a persistence of rural political styles and ideological perspectives in a social context which has been urban for well over half a century.