Irish Politics Analyzed by Ben Fritz I didn't have to see very much of Ireland to realize that, when it comes to politics and economics, we blow. Now, of course, all us good liberals who have read the statistics comparing America to its Western allies on child poverty (the highest), tax rates (the lowest), and social inequality (the most) have always known that we are doing the worst job at providing for our citizenry. Those of us who have studied some political science also have probably come to realize that the U.S.'s rather unique form of government­a strict separation of powers and an extremely powerful executive­is also a weakness, since it often leads to gridlock and separates the government from the people it is meant to represent. After spending over two months in Ireland observing its parliamentary government in action and living in a society where poverty and inequality on the scale that we take for granted is unheard of has brought those statistics to life. However, as it has become plainly evident before my eyes that there is a better way to organize a society, I have also realized, that while America blows, it is also the best country in the world, and one that I'll be extremely happy to return to in a few months. In America, our 209 year-old Constitution is held in such high regard that the thought of altering it to create a governmental structure that is more fair and more modern is rarely even considered by any besides academics. I didn't have to consider Ireland's Parliament for very long, however, to see that it works far better and is much more representative of its people. This is not only because a Parliament pretty much inherently works better than a separated Congress and executive (because gridlock is reduced, the ruling coalition is clearly accountable, and those who make the laws can oversee their implementation), but because Ireland has a radically different and radically simple system for organizing constituencies and counting votes. Instead of one representative per district who is elected on a winner-take-all basis, constituencies in Ireland have three to five representatives and voters rank their preferences among all the candidates. You can, if you want, vote for only one candidate, or you can rank every single one (in a recent by-election, there were nineteen candidates, so obviously most voters don't even know most of the obscure candidates for whom they can vote). The advantages of this system are obvious, as each voter's preferences are better represented thanks to ranked voting and the views of the constituency as a whole are better accounted for as a group of Deputies (the Irish equivalent of Congressmen) with differing views can be elected to represent a constituency with diverse views. Perhaps it is only after seeing that such a logical system exists that one truly realizes how idiotic it is to let 50.1% (or even less when there are more than one major candidate) of the people dictate who will represent everyone. Ireland does have a President, but she (yes, she) has about as much power as I do in Irish politics. She is basically a head of state. There is also a Senate, which shares legislative power with the Dail (the lower house), but because the ministers and the Taoiseach (Tee-shook, the Prime Minister) come from the Dail, it is the real center of power. So, when the government screws things up, the people know that the responsibility lies with the parties forming the government (because Ireland has many parties, the government is usually a coalition of two or more) and they can easily throw them out. The people know which party is doing what and the representatives get a message ten times more clear than most American elections, such as the last one, where a Democratic president was returned along with a Republican Congress. In America, we tend to credit a President with the state of things and elect a Congress based on . . . well, your guess is as good as mine. It wasn't while walking through the Dail (the House of Parliament), however, that I saw the most significant difference between Irish society and American. It was on a drive through what, according to the person I was with, is the poorest area in Dublin and, thus, all of Ireland. I did realize that poverty is not as bad in Ireland as it is in America and did not expect to see a slum like those in New York or Philadelphia, but I still had a hard time believing that what I was seeing was the Irish version of dire poverty. The neighborhood looked simply like an American working class neighborhood: decently constructed, connected small houses in an obviously planned neighborhood. There was a little graffiti and the children playing on the streets were obviously mostly wearing second-hand clothing, but those were the only visible signs that this was not an average area at all. The school looked at least as nice (and get as much money!) as those in the wealthier suburbs and all the housing is kept up by the city, which built them. Of course, the flip-side to this is that the house where I am staying, which is in an upper-middle class suburb, looks remarkable similar and would pass for a lower-middle class neighborhood in the US. This probably has a lot to do with the fact that a typical upper-middle class family is paying over 40% of their income in taxes and around $40 for a tank of gas. But then on the other hand, college and health care are free, so many major expenses that American families face do not exist. On the whole, though, the well-off families here don't live as well as those in America and the poor live much better. While cultural influences certainly play a role in the quality of some neighborhoods, the quality of housing and school and the level of support for the unemployed is the result of government action which makes U.S. level inequality an impossibility. Just as much music to the liberal ear as real support for the poor (to such an extent that even yours truly with the bleeding heart thinks that in some cases it is excessive and needs to be cut to encourage work) is the fact that Ireland is not in an economic doldrums, as conservatives allege happens in cases of effective and compassionate government. Rather, the "Celtic tiger" is booming beyond all expectations, having in the past decade brought Ireland from a struggling nation to a world-class economic power. Tax receipts are booming to such an extent that taxes are being cut simply because there is more money than the liberal politicians know how to spend (yes, you read that correctly). As much as I admire Ireland in a lot of ways, it obviously has its share of problems that I shouldn't overlook. Upon my first day here, I asked a Deputy of the Dail to explain the main issues of contention between the political parties, figuring that since there are six major ones, there must be constant disagreements. He thought about it for a minute, then said "Well, nothing really." Those of you who think our two parties are too similar might change your tune after seeing a nation where the all the political parties might as well merge into the Fianna Fail - Fine Gael - Green Democratic - Left Labour - Progressive Democrats. Of course, it is nice for all of us who agree with the left-liberal consensus this nation is reached, but if you think Americans are apathetic about politics, you can just imagine what it is like here. Despite this major problem and other ones that Ireland shares with other Western nations (traffic, pollution, education, etc.), I am quite comfortable in saying that Irish politics and government is pretty much superior to the American version in most ways. As I realized after living here for just a few weeks, however, I wouldn't for a second wish that I had been born in Ireland instead of America (and not just because I love my country, yaddayaddayadda). In many ways, my problems with Irish society as I have seen it have reminded me of many of the values that conservatives celebrate and liberals sometimes ignore (of course, conservatives reach the wrong conclusions from these values, but you have to give them credit for considering them). Most importantly, it is quite obvious that Americans, provided they have a decent start (big proviso, I know), have a lot more opportunity in their life and freedom to choose what they will do. Irish students have to choose what they will study in college when they apply at the age of 17 or 18 and at that point they are pretty much committed. University consists of almost all courses in one area of study, along with a series of electives also all in one area (e.g. you might be studying Economics and then also take a series of electives, all in literature). You think you had a tough time picking a major at sophomore paper time? Imagine having to set out the general course of your life at the time you applied to college. Even after graduation though, and more importantly, because Ireland is such a small and homogenous country, there is just a lot less you can do with your life. As the most economically succesful nation in the world, America has signficant opportunities in just about every industry available, from business to engineering to teaching humanities at a liberal arts college (make that usually significant). And because our educational system lets anybody who wants to go to college (at the least, community college, which is now free), as opposed to Ireland's system where only about half of high school graduates can go to university because of the lack of spaces, we have a lot of opportunity to choose and then change our mind about which of the many available opportunities it is we want to pursue. With the exception of the engineers, the pre-meds, and Vincent Jones, I'm sure most of us would be on very different tracks if we had been forced to choose so early. There's also the fact that a tank of gas costs $40, there aren't any interesting buildings constructed in the Modern age, and I've had so many potatoes that the sight of them makes me feel less hungry than during the walk to Sharples on Falafel bar night, but perhaps that's balanced out by Guinness, the fact that college is free and retirement is taken care of and Guinness. I could go on about details like this forever, but the main conclusion I've reached after over two months in Ireland is that we got the better country, at least in terms of having great opportunities, if not for culture, but over here they've thought through and enacted a much more sensible and effective political system. Yes, it is nice to visit here, appreciate the beauty and take in the culture, but as you have all already guessed I am going to say, I probably wouldn't want to live here. I would like to take their political system, add a little more competition between the political parties, and bring it over to the U.S. though.

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