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The Accusation of Clientelism: On the Interplay between Social Science, Mass Media, and Politics in the Critique of Irish Democracy
Die Anklage des Klientelismus: zum Zusammenspiel von Sozialwissenschaft, Massenmedien und Politik in der Kritik der irischen Demokratie
[journal article]
Abstract The case of Ireland provides an example of a long-term critical reflection on the nature of democracy that is not linked to social movements. Instead it is the result of an interplay between social science research, mass media, and parliamentary debate, all of which employ the notion of clientelism.... view more
The case of Ireland provides an example of a long-term critical reflection on the nature of democracy that is not linked to social movements. Instead it is the result of an interplay between social science research, mass media, and parliamentary debate, all of which employ the notion of clientelism. The structural feature on which the respective critique focuses is the peculiar relationship be-tween public representatives and voters in Ireland. It is strongly based in con-stituency service and individual brokerage and thus contradicts universalistic expectations towards modern politics. The article starts with a justification of the choice of the case and the theoretical framework, i.e. the sociology of critical capacity proposed by Boltanski and Thévenot. It then introduces records of parliamentary debates and newspaper articles as the empirical material and qualitative content analysis as the main method of analysis. Subsequent sections reconstruct the dynamics of the critical reflection over a thirty-year period and highlight significant patterns of critique and justification.... view less
Keywords
Ireland; political action; legitimation; political culture; historical development; social research; conception of democracy; mass media; social science; parliamentarism; clientelism; democracy; Boltanski, L; content analysis; parliamentary debate; social change; reporting
Classification
Political Process, Elections, Political Sociology, Political Culture
Free Keywords
Critique; justification; orders of worth; qualitative analysis
Document language
English
Publication Year
2017
Page/Pages
p. 172-195
Journal
Historical Social Research, 42 (2017) 3
Issue topic
Critique and Social Change: Historical, Cultural, and Institutional Perspectives
DOI
https://doi.org/10.12759/hsr.42.2017.3.172-195
ISSN
0172-6404
Status
Published Version; peer reviewed