![Sample our Politics & International Relations journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5947/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Politics-International-Relations.jpg"})
Abstract
In the comparative study of party organisation and party systems Irish parties have long been considered as deviant. While this might, in certain respects at least, be a proper description for the major Irish parties, the Irish Green Party mirrors the transformation from a loose protest movement opposed to ‘conventional politics’ into an established force in the Irish party system – most visible in its current government participation – that a range of Green parties in other European countries have already experienced. This paper analyses this transformation by focusing on the party’s organisational evolution from its foundation in 1981 until 2009. One of the core findings is that its growing political relevance was accompanied by a shift towards a stronger professionalisation of party elites, which pushed for a streamlining of intra‐organisational procedures. This development empowered the party in public office and thereby centralised the party organisation, a finding in line with theories on new parties’ long‐term evolution.
Notes
1. Alternatively, new parties can be splinter parties from old parties or mergers (see for an overview Mair, Citation1999), which tend to have an easier start in organisational terms. Although splinter parties do not possess a fully developed infrastructure, they often take with them at least some actors with political experience and can orient themselves organisationally on the mother party.
2. Unfortunately, the party archive of the Irish Greens is rather sporadic (which is quite typical for green parties, more generally reflecting their – at least initial – opposition against bureaucratisation), e.g. old party constitutions have not been collected systematically which emphasises the importance of using a variety of sources to reconstruct the evolution of the organisation.
3. The interviews were conducted based on interview guidelines (sent to the interviewees beforehand) laying out core dimensions of organisation‐building and organisational change which helped to structure each of the interviews.
4. To ensure unbiased information, the interviews have been anonymised. Although the Greens in Ireland were in principle very open, this was necessary since the project from which the Ireland data are drawn included 10 new parties in eight countries, in some of which sensitivities towards the publication of intra‐party matters were quite pronounced. To assure consistency in the way data were collected, the offer to anonymise information (and to triangulate it) was therefore the standard procedure with regard to all participants which was requested by the Irish interviewees as well. Twelve interviews could be recorded. In the three remaining cases, transcripts were based on detailed, hand‐written notes. On average, the interviews lasted 45 minutes to one hour. In terms of content, information was solely used if consistently supported from different perspectives (e.g. by MPs, party secretary and activists) or by various sources (e.g. interview and party documents), which made the individualisation of statements unnecessary for the purpose of this article.
5. Parties with rich donors such as Forza Italia in Italy (founded by media magnate Silvio Berlusconi) or the Swiss Lega dei Ticinesi (led and financed by Guiliano Bignasca) are exceptions to this.
6. Facilitation Agreement, May 1990, Internal Party Document, Archive of the Green Party head office, Dublin, Guidelines. These guidelines laid out in great detail how a meeting should be run in order to facilitate consensus.
7. Constitutional Group Report, Meeting of the CP/CG Constitutional Group, 3 April 1990, Internal Party Document, Archive of the Green Party Head Office, Dublin, p. 2.
8. Minutes of Constitution Group Meeting Held on 30 April 1990. Internal Party Document, Archive of the Green Party Head Office, Dublin.
9. Still 1997, it had barely £20,000 for its entire national campaign.
10. Memorandum of Meeting between Roger Garland with the Clerk of the Dáil, Seán Ryall on Wednesday, 21 March 1990, Internal Party Document, Archive of the Green Party head office, Dublin.
11. For instance, two‐thirds of party members need to agree for the party to enter government.
12. Before the German Greens and the Left Party were in parliament, the German FDP has been in such a pivotal position a couple of times being able to complete either a social democratic or a conservative government.
13. Environmentalists to Enter Irish Government, http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe, 14 June 2006; Greens to join Irish government, http://news.bbc.co.uk, 14 June 2007; Feinstein (Citation2008).
14. Note that the 2008 figure counts the number of members beginning of the year.
15. While local autonomy and participatory modes of decision‐making are not necessarily linked, they tend to be closely tied in green parties which favour local autonomy as a way to bring decision‐making closer to the members and to avoid power‐concentration on a national elite.
16. According to the Irish Times poll both parties lost support. The party rating for Fianna Fáil was 21 per cent (−1); for the Green Party 3 per cent (−1). Also leader satisfaction went for FF leader Brian Cowen down to 18 per cent (−6) and the Green leader John Gormley down to 25 per cent (−4). See details: http://www.irishelection.com/2009/05/irish-times-poll