Funferal

TASC produces new survey of attitudes to democracy in Ireland

There’s an intriguing report in the Irish Times today about a survey of attitudes towards democracy in Ireland:

“With just one exception (falsely claiming benefits), those with third-level education were significantly more ambivalent towards the law than those with primary or second-level education only,” said Paula Clancy, Ian Hughes and Teresa Brannick in an analysis of the findings.

In fact it appears increased education correlates closely with a decrease in respect for law, across issues. The report also looks at other attitudes towards democracy:

“Attitudes towards democracy in Ireland thus continue to be more positive than is the case in most other countries,” the poll report says. Nearly 40 per cent favour “a strongly egalitarian concept of democracy”, while just 5 per cent believe free-market economic rules should dominate.

TASC is an Irish ‘Think-tank for Action on Social Change’ that is liberal-left in membership (which includes Fintan O’Toole, Ivana Bacik, John Horgan and David Begg, amongs others).