Clientism in Irish Politics

Like many people, I have long bemoaned the clientism which is seemingly endemic in Irish politics. It has two central manifestations, both of them negative. First, ministries are divvied up on the basis of geography not talent and constituencies with a minister get far more than their due. As a result, the likelihood of a candidate getting a portfolio becomes a big reason to vote for them. This is obviously a much bigger issue outside of Dublin, but Lord knows Dublin has its own problems. The second issue is that politicians in Ireland have an almost pathological concern with local issues. We all know Tip O'Neill's famous line about how all politics is local, but in Ireland we take that principle further than most.

The difficulties with clientism are substantial and they pose serious barriers to the overall development of Irish society. Everything from public infrastructure, to de-centralisation to sports grants is informed to an unhealthy degree by the issues raised by a TD's local constituents. While this makes sense for the locale, it becomes difficult to devise national strategies on national issues, because local politics always wins out. Road building and public transport are both acute examples of this. In Dublin, it is manifested in the lack of any real overall planning for the city and its catchment area as a whole; the four local authorities squabble it out and occasionally a minister will unveil some big plan. (The Transport 21website boasts a plan to increase the Dublin Bus service by 60% but absolutely no detail whatsoever on where this extra capacity will be deployed.)

Thanks to clientism, the national spatial strategy was rendered useless by the increasingly defunct de-centralisation plan. Our recent health service crises are thanks in no small part to the consistent refusal of Irish politicians to bite the bullet and implement the Hanly report. You can't have a hospital of the size and quality of St Vincent's or Beamount in every town in Ireland. It's not only financially unrealistic, but the hospital wouldn't see enough patients to maintain any useful level of expertise. Everyone knows this, and yet, time and time again, local hospital candidates get a huge showing in elections.

My point here is not really to give out about clientism, although I realise that I have now spent three paragraphs doing just that. I want instead to focus on its cause. I had, for a very long time thought that the root of this problem was a combination of two factors, the dominance of the civil war parties in Irish political life and the Irish culture of backslapping and glad handing. The theory goes as follows: The two main political parties in Ireland (FG & FF) have 128 out of 166 seats (over 75%). There is very little to distinguish them on policy, and so their TDs and Councillors have made their careers by being deft traders in favours. This theory doesn't really account for how clientism became so big in the first place, but it does account for its continuing success.

I am however, beginning to accept that there may be a third factor which has to be taken into account: the multi-seat STV constituency. I am a huge believer in proportional representation. I think it gives our system a democratic legitimacy that it totally lacking in the US or the UK (where I currently live). However, the multi-seat constituency, means that party colleagues are essentially rivals. Often a general election candidate will have far more to fear from a surge in support from her running mate than for someone from an opposing party. It is as though the parties respective shares of the vote are almost assumed and so the candidates are scrambling for the biggest slice of their party's pie that they can get. In such a situation, personal favours matter much more than policy proposals, since the policies of the two candidates are ostensibly identical. Furthermore, this is not just a phenomenon that occurs at election time. As Lemass was reputed to have said, 'the next campaign starts the day after the election'. Throughout the life of any Dáil TDs will be focused on this goal.

John Bowman once noted that a British election is like 600 simultaneous games of draughts whereas an Irish election is like 43 simultaneous games of chess. There is a lot of truth in this and I for one derive great enjoyment from Irish elections and their many fascinating permutations. While Irish politics is arguably more rife with clientism than any other European country, it is also probably fair to say that British politics is very low on this particular vice. It is certainly possible that the electoral systems play some part in this. If we really want to see a national politics in Ireland instead of the mishmash of local interests that is so prevalent at the moment, perhaps we need to address the part that our system plays in this. I am not for a moment suggesting that we should introduce a first past the post system, but a different PR model, might be worth a think.