The Politics of Constitutional Change in Ireland, 1922-2016

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

This course will explore the politics of constitutional change in Ireland over the period from the enactment of the Constitution of the Irish Free State in 1922 to the present day, encompassing issues such as electoral reform, democratic accountability, institutional reform, the role of women, the relationship between Church and state, divorce, abortion and same-sex marriage. These in themselves, and to an extent independently of the issues involved, raise increasingly important theoretical and political questions about the relationship - and the tensions - between the institutions of representative democracy - especially the Constitution - and participatory democratic politics in a modern state. Case histories will be used to illustrate the theoretical issues involved.