Who to trust?

Who to follow?

Who to obey?

These questions are central to our systems of government. A government cannot function if it does not have authority – but that authority is often taken for granted.

Where does authority come from? What is it based on? How is it maintained – or lost? These are the questions which the Foundations of Institutional Authority project will explore.

Our project examines a question that is fundamental to systems of constitutional government: from where do public institutions get their authority?

Constitutional law tends to assume that authority comes from the law: that people comply with an instruction because it comes from an official designated by law.

But the reality is often much more complicated. An institution’s authority may be influenced by multiple factors: its history, identity, popularity, or levels of public trust. An institution’s authority can also change over time. It can become stronger – or it can collapse.

The goal of the research is to investigate this issue by talking directly to the people whose views shape institutional authority: political leaders, government officials and – most importantly – ordinary people. By asking people their views on the institutions that govern them, the project team hopes to build a better understanding of how constitutional systems actually operate.

The Foundations of Institutional Authority (FIAT) is an interdisciplinary research project based at the Centre for Constitutional Studies in the Sutherland School of Law, University College Dublin and funded by a European Research Council Consolidator grant.

This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No 819877)

News & Events

Methods

How to investigate a constitutional culture?: the case for the focus group method in comparative constitutional studies

By Eoin Carolan, Silvia Gagliardi and Daniela Rodriguez Gutierrez Abstract This paper makes the case for the use of focus groups as a method with particular relevance to the field of comparative constitutional studies. The paper begins with a brief overview of the most common approaches to accounts of constitutional culture. It then explains how […]

July 23, 2024

Right Wing Populism

Right-wing populism reaches Argentina

By Demian Iglesias Seifert & Somsubhra Banerjee A recent Loop article by Massimo D’Angelo explored the election of right-wing contender Javier Milei in the primary polls. The withdrawal of ex-presidents Macri and Fernandez de Kirchner from the race led to victory for the libertarian nominee. Building on D’Angelo’s piece, Demian Iglesias Seifert and Somsubhra Banerjee contend that this unexpected […]

March 4, 2024

Right Wing Populism, Sweden

Sweden Democrats: another win for right-wing populism and illiberalism in Europe?

By Orlaith Rice Frustration with integration policy and fear of crime, two issues which Swedish political rhetoric and public opinion increasingly conflates, fuel the Sweden Democrats’ onward journey into mainstream politics. Orlaith Rice considers where this party sits under labels of populism and illiberalism In her recent piece for The Loop, Gefjon Off discusses how the Sweden Democrats […]

March 4, 2024