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SOCIAL CLEAVAGES AND PARTY SYSTEMS: A RECONSIDERATION OF THE IRISH CASE
Author(s) -
CARTY R.K.
Publication year - 1976
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.1475-6765.1976.tb00528.x
Subject(s) - irish , independence (probability theory) , politics , period (music) , political economy , political science , sociology , law , philosophy , linguistics , statistics , physics , mathematics , acoustics
It has been argued that the Irish party system can best be accounted for in terms of the “Lipset–Rokkan centre–periphery concept”. This paper questions this view and presents evidence to the contrary. Cleavages in the Irish social structure were not frozen into the party system that emerged in the post‐independence period. In terms of the widely accepted typologies of Western European political development Ireland constitutes a deviant case. As such it deserves more attention.