Celtic Consensus (Napoleon's World)

The Celtic Consensus refers to the macroeconomic and, to a lesser extent, foreign and cultural policies of Ireland since the mid-1980s, in which Conservative, Labour and Christian Democratic administrations and Dail majorities have all pursued fairly similar policy goals and implementations. The Celtic Consensus includes an orientation towards liberal market reforms, a social safety net, a balance between official secularism and social conservatism, and a robust foreign policy that includes participation in League of Nations peacekeeping operations. The term was coined by former President Bertie Ahern, who dismissed differences in 1997 between then-President John Bruton and himself by saying "we operate under what I call the 'Celtic Consensus' we've been under for over a decade now."