The welfare state debate
This chapter analyses the post-war evolution of a welfare state in Ireland. It explores the tension between traditionalist influences (clientelism, localism, and religion) and the modernising forces of social democracy that were reshaping civic culture and the idea of citizenship into what T. H. Marshall (1950) has called a ‘three-legged stool’ of civil rights, political rights, and social rights. The Irish welfare state is often categorised as belonging to the Anglo-Saxon model. However, Ireland's ideological orientation (driven by Catholic social teaching in the form of the principle of subsidiarity) and an informal Church–State alliance suggests the Irish welfare state had more in common with the Mediterranean countries (Spain, Portugal, Italy), Nonetheless, a shared language and popular culture did influence the public imaginary concept of the ideal of a welfare state and similarly shape public demands for higher levels of social expenditure.