Pros And Cons Of Political Culture

The (4) International Encyclopaedia of Sciences describes Political Culture as:
‘At the broadest level, political culture refers to the meanings attributed to politics. It constitutes the socially constructed and tenuously shared meanings which endow or challenge legitimacy in the political institutions, offices, and procedures of a polity. Political culture is employed to establish or contest the legitimate parameters of collective identity. At any given historical period, a political culture will likely be characterized by a fairly limited repertoire of particularly salient themes that express the values and goals most sacred to the collectivity through key symbols, myths, rhetorical strategies, and rituals accessible through the analysis of discourse’.

The combined effects of economic migration, missionaries and deportation meant that the Irish are a well-travelled nation and well respected worldwide. This has helped significantly in forging political and economic ties that have benefited our economy.
Our experience and political culture also means that we tend to be strong advocates of oppressed nations and peoples. The charitable nature of Irish people must have its roots in the poverty of our previous generations and the strong ethos of charity within the church. Internationally also as we are a neutral country and are perceived internationally as impartial and our peacekeepers are very well respected wherever they operate.
It is also notable that during the financial crisis of recent years the loss of financial sovereignty was a significant blow to the pride of a nation that had fought and given up so much for political sovereignty. It is likely that this was partly one of the reasons Ireland accepted austerity and moved swiftly to regain financial independence over its own