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The death of conservative Ireland? The 2018 abortion referendum
- Source :
- Electoral Studies
- Publication Year :
- 2020
- Publisher :
- Elsevier BV, 2020.
-
Abstract
- The outcomes of two recent Irish referendums - on marriage equality in 2015 and abortion in 2018 - have placed contemporary Irish voters in sharp contrast with their long-standing conservative Catholic reputation. These referendums also stand out internationally because of an associated deliberative innovation. This paper aims to explain the watershed abortion vote drawing on theories of generational change, issue-voting, cue-taking and deliberative democracy, using data from an exit poll at the 2018 abortion referendum. We show that cleavage and age effects are key to understanding the referendum outcome. These results offer insight into how societal processes such as rapid secularisation, generational replacement and democratic innovations shape politics. Moreover, voters who were aware of the deliberative innovation were more likely to support the liberal referendum option. To increase willingness to deviate from the status quo, engaging citizens actively in the debate is a fruitful approach.
- Subjects :
- Cleavage (politics)
media_common.quotation_subject
Abortion
Politics
Deliberative democracy
Irish
Political science
0502 economics and business
Referendum
050602 political science & public administration
Generational effects
050207 economics
media_common
05 social sciences
Voting behaviour
language.human_language
Democracy
0506 political science
Political economy
Political Science and International Relations
language
Voting behavior
Ireland
Referendums
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 02613794
- Volume :
- 65
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Electoral Studies
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....23055e81ef87d28bc959cb9a8e3783b2