Clientelism invaded every part of Irish politics and is therefore a real danger for the democracy on the island.
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| Money Tree, cartoon: politics.ie |
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Clientelism means that politicians build up a sizable and stable body of people they have some obligations to. These people are the so called clientele. The politicians would contact their clientele during the election time and remind them of the work they have done. In that way, politicians try to build up a reputation in the constituency and create a stable set of people who are going to vote for them.
To understand how clientelism can occur in Ireland you need to have a look at the role the representatives. The Teachta Dálas, TDs, are the elected representatives to the Dáil Éireann what is the lower house of the Irish parliament named Oireachtas. The responsibilities of TDs can be split into their primary role, to work on legislation, and their secondary role, to keep in touch with their local constituency. The secondary role can also be divided into three main functions. First, the role of the local representer includes the attendance of local events. Second, the local promoter advances the interests of the area, e.g. attracting new industries. Third, to advice people, to sort out individual problems or to contact civil service institutions for constituents is called the role of the welfare-officer.
On the one hand, the workload of the welfare-officer is criticised for being very time consuming. On the other hand, politicians believe it is very important for politicians to build up a good reputation to get re-elected. There are two different views on the outcome of the secondary role of the deputies. One side argues for a little outcome because it’s more like an “imaginary patronage” that is supposed to make people believe the TD achieved something for them even though he or she hasn’t. The other side is in favour of a great outcome that contains considerable power, undermines institutions and can be seen as corruption.
Though, it could be argued that it doesn’t matter what actual outcome the work has. The important fact is that people rather contact their elected TDs than civil servants to sort out private matters. In that way the administrative system is undermined and at least the perception of inequality is created.
The most obvious impact of the clientelism is that the casework reduces the time TDs can spend on their parliamentary duties like legislation and discussing policy. This weakens the Dáils ability to provide scrutiny of the government. Nevertheless, deputies should be able to cover both functions. In 2003 there have been about 12 civil servants per minister to take care of the constituency work.
Even though, TDs might be able to help people getting what they are entitled to the effect on the civil service is a waste of time and money. Therefore, the perception of the political system can be positive in terms of the citizens having the impression there is someone who takes care of their problems. Still, it can have a corrosive effect because the confidence in the administration is injured. The political landscape tends to be centralised with two main parties because many politicians are adopting popular views to win the next elections. This leads to more inner party competition than party unity.
A very important effect is the individualisation of social conflicts. Michael D. Higgins, currently president of Ireland, argues that clientelism “disorganises the poor” and encourages links to TDs instead to people in the same position. Finally, that reinforces social individualism and perpetuates the uneven distribution of resources like wealth and knowledge.
Important politicians like Charles Haughey, Bertie Ahern, Ray Burke and Michael Lowry have all been involved in some controversy about political corruption. Most of the time, the politicians received high payments from individuals what made their political decisions on certain matters questionable. It is very likely that every one of the named above had a well established clientele to back up their actions.
A different term that can be used to describe the relationship between local politicians and the constituency is brokerage. There the TD is used as a broker to access certain services. In contrast to the clientelism no long lasting relationships or obligations come out of that connection. Some scientists argue that Ireland should try to turn away from clientelism and to more brokerage.
Clientelism can be called corruption and is therefore a real danger for every democracy or the people’s confidence in it. If the social services would improve their efficiency and TDs would start to refer every request to the responsible institution clientelism would be unnecessary. People would be encouraged to become more active and organise themselves. Clientelism fails democracy completely. The expectation someone else is going to fix your problems is undemocratic because it stops people from participating and critical thinking within the system.
