Research to be published today shows many people are concerned about continuing - and even growing - inequality in Irish society, writes Paula Clancy
The newspapers and radio waves are full of it. It forms the basis for discussion in pubs, around dinner tables and the coffee machine in the workplace.
The economy is doing well, but is Ireland still a good place to live?
Are the fruits of economic success distributed fairly?
How satisfied are we that our democracy is working in all our interests?
Tasc, a think tank for action on social change, was set up to create an independent space for new ideas, ways and policies that will contribute towards making Ireland a more equal society. The state of our democracy is central to that.
Today's launch of the Democratic Audit Ireland Research Project is a good example of what we are about.
Most people do not want the kind of inequalities that we have in Irish society. Democracy is the mechanism to make decisions about what kind of society we want. This audit will help us get the information that we need to make better decisions.
Today we are publishing top-line results of a survey of public attitudes to democracy (Public Perspectives on Democracy in Ireland), the first stage of the much wider project. The results provide one of the many strands of information and evidence which will be used to answer 80 research questions about aspects of Irish democracy.
As revealed in this initial research, people are by and large satisfied with the way our democracy is developing, but it is no surprise to note that this is also associated with economic wellbeing.
Some 70 per cent of the AB social classes express some level of satisfaction compared with 53 per cent from among those who are least well-off.
Satisfaction with the current state of democracy in Ireland is also higher among those who intend to vote for the present Government parties and lowest among supporters of Opposition parties and independents.
This correlation between satisfaction with the state of democracy and support for the Government parties suggests a dynamic concept of democracy rather than one which is static.
So what is in people's minds when they think about democracy?
Irish people have a strongly egalitarian concept of democracy. A more equal society is seen as the single most important issue for Ireland today, and there is overwhelming support for the enforcement of social and employment-related rights through Irish law.
By comparison, fewer than 5 per cent name a free market economy as the most important aspect of democracy. We think that this provides evidence of strong public support for a more just society over the primacy of the free market.
There is also a sharp awareness of existing inequalities in Irish society, and many people believe that things are no better or have actually worsened in the past five years.
This awareness extends to a consciousness of the inequalities of political representation and participation.
Not only are Irish politicians predominantly middle-aged, but they also tend to be largely middle-class.
Currently, almost half of TDs come from the lower and higher professional classes, whereas in Irish society as a whole less than 15 per cent of the total population are lower and higher professionals.
The over representation of this group in the Dáil reinforces public perceptions of politics as being the preserve of the educated and the wealthy, reflected in the very large proportion of people - 53 per cent - who named the business sector (also overwhelmingly male) as the best represented in the Dáil.
The positive signs are that, notwithstanding existing inequalities, there is a noteworthy degree of support for politics and political institutions among Irish people.
People believe that both the Government and the Opposition matter.
Thus the Dáil is seen to have an important role in upholding important dimensions of democracy, most notably holding the Government to account.
People, too, demonstrate a significant level of confidence in their own political power. There is a strong level of belief in an individual's ability to influence political decisions, and also both in the influence of their vote at elections and in their duty to do so.
This power, however, is primarily exercised in participation at elections and in reliance on public representatives, and does not translate into being more actively involved in politics. For example, just 4 per cent of people have taken part in a party political campaign in the last three years.
A substantial number of people believe that political activism is a waste of time, a view more likely to be held by the young and by those from the DE socioeconomic group.
In fact 68 per cent of the AB respondents believe being active in politics is worthwhile compared with 48 per cent of DE respondents.
Furthermore more than three-quarters of those in the AB category believed ordinary citizens can influence political decisions when they make an effort, compared with 59 per cent of the DE respondents.
Overall, our results show a high degree of consensus in Irish society around attitudes to democracy.
The variations in response according to age, social class, gender and level of education do not reveal any great fault lines.
The relative consistency of responses from across all levels of Irish society reflects perhaps the frequently commented-upon lack of major ideological cleavages in Irish politics and society.
This is the first time that democracy will be audited in Ireland, North and South, and it will provide a benchmark against which to judge progress in the future.
More importantly, it will establish pointers towards what reforms are needed to make Irish democracy more responsive and effective.
The final report will be published in the autumn of 2006.
Paula Clancy is the director of Tasc