Center for the Study of Democracy

The need for political participation dominates our theoretical understandings of democratic stability. Furthermore, prevailing democratic political culture models extol a mixed culture of participants and warn of the dangers of wide spread deference. This paper tests the ability of these models to account for democratic societies characterized by high levels of deferential and personalistic political behavior. The analysis examines how a country with highly "authoritarian" social and political structures can establish a stable democracy and sustain it for more than seventy years. The historical and survey data included in this analysis offer evidence of how authoritarianism and personalism are integral elements in sustaining Irish democracy. The findings bring into question dominant explanations for democratic stability and suggest how Eckstein's theory of congruence provides new insights into the puzzle of Irish democracy.