Thanks again Jas. It does not appear at this juncture that FF and FG really vary to any significant degree. One would think that over time that they would reconstitute into center left and center right parties, ala the UK.
Maybe so, but I'd be doubtful and there's been little sign of it so far.
To my mind, FG are already a centre-right party, hamstrung by the fact that they can never win enough seats to enter government without the centre-left Labour party and so possibly coming off to many as more centrist than they really are. Certainly from his pronouncements to date, the current leader is a sort of standard law & order conservative type leader (if a bit gormless).
FF are almost anti-ideological, maybe somewhat populist. Their stance depends a great deal on their leader's direction moreso than any real core beliefs. They too are strongly affected by their coalition partners. Socially centrist to right leaning, economically centrist (though with members along the spectrum from centre-left to centre-right).
Neither party has any sort of litmus test or issue of credo, at least not anymore. Too a great extent party identification for many members (and indeed many of their elected representatives) is clearly simply a matter of family history rather than any actual political beliefs. Both are rather big-tent operations which can easily accomodate any reasonably moderate type characters.
(Another factor to consider may be that our system of election (PR-STV) seems to favour moderates (IMO) moreso than other electoral methods.)
To a significant extent it is Ireland's smaller parties as necessary coalition partners who so often find themsleves steering the ship of government. The Progressive Democrats for example (set up in the 1980s from defectors from both FF and FG) have arguably been the most influential party in government over the past 2 decades - responsible for setting in place a pro-business , low direct tax economy which has become accepted by pretty much all parties with elected representation as the correct framework to have in place - this despite the fact that they have only occasionally managed to get double digit representation in the Irish parliament and are currently on the verge of extinction.
I disagree - you can't (anymore) use any sort of scale to place either FG or FF. Its just that FF is the "power party" who like all such parties doesn't actually have an ideology (but likes to pretend it does) other than those related to patronage and the social\cultural ideas of the time (Protectionist Jacobinism in the 1930s, Keynesian Conservatism in the 60s/70s, Free Market Friedmanism plus the parish pump now).
FG is just a party of conservative and liberal-conservative lawyers and businessmen. In many ways its opinions are actually closer to that of the "establishment" than that of many members of FF. Though perhaps I am wrong on this, I was surprised to note that the majority of identified FG voters voted no in the referendum.
Poll
