‘Here's a Wee Present for You’: The Role of Civic Culture in the Governance of Northern Ireland

✍ Scribed by Diarmuid Maguire

• Book ID: 117778140
• Publisher: Informa UK (Taylor & Francis)
• Year: 2003
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 170 KB
• Volume: 22
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1449-4035
• DOI: 10.1016/s1449-4035(03)70023-x

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

This article explores how civil servants have sought to reform civil society in Northern Ireland during the peace process by using funding of community groups, but also through the discourse necessary to get hold of that funding. It argues that this attempted re-construction of civil society initiated by the state reflects three arguments. First, there is clear evidence of an ideational change among leading civil servants away from sectarianism and towards more liberal conceptions of civil society. Second, the involvement of the European Union in Northern Ireland not only provides some of this funding but is also a model as it shifts from economic unity to political unity. Third, these factors have led to a form of governance based on participatory democracy. This article argues, however, that there is a failure in dealing with existing forms of representative democracy, which ultimately have the power to undermine the peace process.