Establishing Democracy: A Comparative Analysis of the Genesis and Stabilisation of Democracy in Indepedent Ireland 1918-1937. William Vincent Kissane Ph.D. Thesis UMI Number: U615565 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Dissertation Publishing UMI U615565 Published by ProQuest LLC 2014. Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 I ££ S F 7577 701SSO 2 Thesis Abstract This thesis consists of a comparative exploration of the sources of democratic stabilisation in independent Ireland. It asks whether comparative theories of the genesis and stabilisation of democracy explain the Irish experience of democratic stability after independence. Each chapter tests the explanatory power of a distinct theoretical approach within democratic theory. These theories can be divided into two categories : those that emphasise structural pre-conditions for democratisation and the stabilisation of democracy ; and those that emphasise the importance of elite variables in these processes. My conclusion is that the emergence of a democratic system in independent Ireland could have been predicted by macro-sociological theories of democratisation, but that the stabilisation of such a system after 1922 can be considered an example of a successful re-equilibration which occurred after the Fianna Fail party rose to power in 1932. In that process conscious democratising strategies were central. The Irish case vindicates the view that strong leadership is required for the solution of particularly intractable problems in democracies. What proved decisive was the conscious commitment of a majority of the Anti-Treaty section of the political elite to building a redesigned democratic system after the civil war. In that sense the Irish case vindicates the view that correct elite decisions and the appropriate elite values are the sine qua non o f any stabilisation process. The stabilisation of a democratic system cannot therefore be considered an automatic product of the fact that the state had reached certain levels of socio-economic development by 1922. A high degree of modernity was a necessary but insufficient source of democratic stability. Rather a stable democratic outcome was due to the fact that the commitment of the political elites to the legitimisation of the political system by democratic means was sufficiently great for democracy to survive the crisis of the civil war and its aftermath. 3 Acknowledgements. In its early stages this thesis was funded by the Scholarship Office of the London School of Economics. Between 1996 and 1997 a grant from the Finnish Department of Education, combined with one from the L.S.E.'s Nordic Scholarly Exchange scheme, allowed me to undertake a brief Nordic detour. In the latter stages, only the generosity of my parents, John and Siobhan Kissane, allowed me keep the wolf from the door. A number of staff members have guided my through my academic apprenticeship at the L.S.E., Tom Nossiter, Rosie Gosling, John Madeley, James Hughes, Erik Ringmar and Brendan O' Duffy. Above all, m y supervisor, Brendan O' Leary, has provided the right mix of fastidiousness and moral support. In Finland Risto Alapuro, E id Lyytinen, and Elina Haavio Manilla, were unfailingly hospitable. The staff at the British Library of Economics and Political Science were also helpful. In Ireland thanks are due to the staffs at the National Archives in Bishop St., the National Library, and the U.C.D. archives. Finally, thanks to Trinity College’s generous alumni provisions, I was allowed to use the Library facilities between 1997-1998. CONTENTS 1. Introduction: Democratic Theory and the Irish Free State, pp.7-38. 2. Economic Development and Democracy, pp. 39-66. 3. The Barrington Moore Thesis and Irish Political Development, pp.67-91. 4. Voluntarist Theory, Elite Decisions, and the Origins of the Civil War, pp.92-118. 5. Durkheim’s Division of Labour and the Social Bases of the Civil War, pp.l 19-148. 6. Reshaping the Free State: de Valera and the rise of Constitutional Republicanism, pp. 149-178. 7. ‘Majority Rule’ and the Stabilisation of Democracy in the Irish Free State 1922-1937, pp. 179- 200. 8. Unenthusiastic Democrats ? : de Valera, Collins, and the Civil War, pp.201-228. 9. Conclusion, pp.229-36. Bibliography, pp.237-244. Appendix, pp.245-253. 5 TABLES Table 1.1 Democracy in Europe in 1938. Table 2.1 Percentage of the economically active population engaged in agriculture around 1920. Table 2.2 Distribution of total population by size of locality as a percentage of total population in European countries around 1920, ranked according to size of total population in urban centres of 10,000 or above. Table 2.3 Real product per capita, in democracies, non-democracies, and Ireland, relative to the U.K. in 1913. Table 2.4 Educational enrolment rates in 1920, ranked according to number of enrolled students per ten thousand of the population in each educational sector. Table 2.5 Showing the relationship between different degrees of effectiveness and legitimacy in different political systems. Table 2.6 Irish rates of industrialisation compared with ‘more’ and ‘less’ democratic countries 1956-59. Table 2.7 Irish rates of education compared with ‘more’ and ‘less’ democratic countries 1956-59. Table 2.8 Irish rates of urbanisation compared with ‘more’ or ‘less’ democratic countries. Table 2.9 Irish rates of wealth compared with ‘more’ or ‘less’ democratic countries. Table 2.10 Mean figures for higher education per thousand for countries classified as ‘more’ or ‘less’ democratic by Lipset in 1959. Table 3.1 Lower agricultural classes by acres 1845-1910. Table 3.2 Percentage of Irish farmers as owner-occupiers 1870-1929. Table 3.3 Agrarian households in Finland by class, 1815-1901. Table 3.4 Persons engaged in agriculture, and agricultural labourers in the future area of the Free State,1881-1911. Table 3.5 Percentage of those engaged in agriculture by farm size (acres). Table 3.6 Division of labour in European countries around 1900, ranked according to size of agricultural sector. Table 3.7 Proportion of the agricultural population as a per cent of the economically active population in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Ireland. Table 3.8 Stable democracies and agrarian structures. Table 4.1 Coalition candidates returned in the 1922 general election. Table 5.1 Garvin’s political subcultures. Table 5.2 Allardt’s typology of solidarity-inducing and solidarity-thwarting situations. Table 5.3 Index of Occupational Diversity, 1920-1930. Table 5.4 Tenure structure in selected countries, per cent distribution of the number of farms. Table 5.5 Contested parliamentary elections by region, 1885-1917. Table 5.6 Changes in Dail representation in constituencies where Third Parties or Independent candidates won seats in the Pact election. 6 Table 5.7 Mean percentage support for anti-Treaty candidates in contested constituencies by region, 1922-23. Table 5.8 Numbers per thousand employed in agricultural occupations in 1926, by county. Table 6.1 Politically motivated outrages committed between 1/7/1934 and 31/5/1935, divided into two periods. Table 6.2 Changes to the Treaty 1933-1938. Table 6.3 Political spectrum 1933-1935. Table 6.4 Number of convictions by military tribunal 1933-1936. Table 7.1 Irish Governments 1922-1938. Table 7.2 Result of each pair of general elections, 1922, 1938. Table 7.3 Party Political Spectrum in 1927. Table 7.4 Issue Dimensions of the Irish Party System, 1922-1937. Table 7.5 Two variants of the Westminster model. □ Chapter One : Introduction, Democratic Theory and the Irish Free State. When, in January 1922, Sinn Fein, the Irish nationalist party, split in two over the terms of the Anglo-Irish Treaty that created a self-governing Irish state the previous December, Winston Churchill hastened to denounce its leadership as, 'Irish terrorists', men who were 'naturally drawn to imitate Trotsky and Lenin'.1 In his view the Irish were, 'members of a race who have a genius for conspiracy rather than government'.2 The claims of Irish nationalists to Home Rule had long been countered with the assertion that the Irish were entitled to but incapable of self- government. An eminent opponent of Home Rule had put it this way, The confidence you repose in people will depend something upon the habits they have acquired. Well, the habits the Irish have acquired are very bad. They have become habituated to the use of knives and slugs which is wholly inconsistent with the placing of unlimited confidence in them.3 The apparent extremism of Irish politics under the Union also convinced many in Ireland itself that an independent state would not be stable. These included previously ardent nationalists who withdrew their endorsement of Home Rule during the Land War of 1879. 'The last few years have quite cured me of the notion that either property or liberty could be safely entrusted to an Irish popular chamber.... I do not believe in democratic Home Rule and Home Rule which is not democratic would never be tolerated'.4 Unionist opposition to Home Rule had been predicated on the idea that Home Rule would be 'Rome Rule'. During the Treaty negotiations of 1921 it was further argued that the Irish could not be trusted to behave fairly to its Protestant minority.5 The rapid disintegration of the new state into civil war only six months after independence convinced many of the accuracy of these predictions.