Ciaran O'Flynn
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Dr.
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O'Flynn
First name
Ciaran
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ciaran.oflynn@unisg.ch
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https://twitter.com/CiaranIPE

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  • Publication
    Populism and new radical-right parties: The case of VOX
    ( 2021-06-18)
    Marcos-Marne, Hugo
    ;
    Plaza-Colodro, Carolina
    ;
    O’Flynn, Ciaran
    The populist radical-right label brings together parties characterised by their adherence to populism, nativism, and authoritarianism. While the relevance of the label to the family is unquestioned, its popularity, combined with the theoretical affinity between the three core elements, may cause radical-right parties to be systematically considered populist without further examination. This article posits that whether a radical-right party is populist is an open empirical question, and to demonstrate this, we test the importance of populism in the discourse and electoral success of a new radical-right party, Spain’s VOX. Our empirical strategy is based on the holistic grading of core political discourses, and the analysis of innovative survey data that includes populist attitudes and voting intention. Our results indicate that, despite the existence of certain populist elements in both the supply and demand sides of the electoral competition, these should be considered supplemental and subordinate to nationalist and traditionalist elements, which are central to explaining both the discourse and electoral success of VOX. We believe that our findings are a cautionary note against assuming that all radical-right parties are populist, and an invitation to improve empirical techniques able to separate populism, nativism, and authoritarianism in political discourses.
    Type: journal article
    Journal: Politics
    Volume: Online First
    URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/eprint/4X6ETDM8JVTTGHWIPQ34/full
    DOI: 10.1177/02633957211019587
    URI: https://www.alexandria.unisg.ch/handle/20.500.14171/110309
    Scopus© Citations 18
  • Publication
    Does depoliticization work? An examination of global financial and taxation governance
    (Universität St. Gallen, 2022-02-21)
    O'Flynn, Ciaran
    Depoliticization has been described as one of the most important concepts for understanding current patterns of governance in advanced industrial societies. Governments depoliticize issues in two main ways, discursively and via delegation, and they do so for several reasons: To shield highly contested issues from public discussion; to remove the temptation for politicians to think short-term; or to address issues that cross borders. This thesis is interested in looking to where issues with distributional consequences have been depoliticized, to gauge whether the policy is successful, and see who benefits and loses from depoliticization. I employ a variety of methods, utilizing a case-study, a co-variational analysis, and a large-N panel-data regression. My focus is also varied, employing a multi-level approach moving from domestic politics, to international politics, and beyond the state to transgovernmental networks (TGNs). The first study looks at how large banks in the US, especially those deemed too big to fail, exploit their privileged position on the Federal Advisory Council to lobby the Federal Reserve. I find that the Federal Reserve responds only to the preferences of the very largest banks in the US, and that the impact of their lobbying has grown since the financial crisis of 2008. The second study analyses the plan by the Biden administration to tax the foreign profits of its corporations at a minimum level, with serious consequences for countries such as Ireland, who are so reliant on corporate taxation that they have depoliticized their economic model from public contestation. That the Biden plan endangers the model, shows the exogenously contingent nature of Irelands infrastructural power. Yet, I also demonstrate how political polarization in the US may seriously undermine the Biden plan, showing how infrastructural power in the US is itself endogenously contingent. The third paper investigates if TGNs develop features of democratic governance. The results suggest that democratic governance correlates with the pooled authority, but only if there is delegation to non-state bodies within the networks present. My results suggest that although depoliticization is heralded as an important tool of statecraft, when depoliticization tactics are employed at the domestic or international level, it is not always successful. However, I find that when depoliticisation is deployed beyond the state, in TGN, under certain conditions it can be successful policy tool. This finding suggests interesting and productive future avenues for study of the depoliticization.
    Type: doctoral thesis
    URI: https://www.alexandria.unisg.ch/handle/20.500.14171/108975