Palgrave Studies in Political History: Party Politics in a New Democracy

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This book offers a timely, and fresh historical perspective on the politics of independent Ireland. Interwar Ireland's politics have been caricatured as an anomaly, with the distinction between Fianna F�il and Fine Gael bewildering political commentators and scholars alike. It is common for Ireland's politics to be presented as an anomaly that compare unfavourably to the neat left/right cleavages evident in Britain and much of Europe. By offering an historical re-appraisal of the Irish Free State's politics, anchored in the wider context of inter-war Europe, Mel Farrell argues that the Irish party system is not unique in having two dominant parties capable of adapting to changing circumstances, and suggests that this has been a key strength of Irish democracy. Moreover, the book challenges the tired clich� of 'Civil War Politics' by demonstrating that events subsequent to Civil War led the Fine Gael/Fianna F�il cleavage dominant in the twentieth-century.