ABSTRACT
New parties have been studied, analysed, and placed into different typologies, which include various residual groups ranging from personal vehicle parties to mobilising and challenging parties (Rochon 1985: 421, 425-426). The problem with these categories is that some of the parties are little more than glorified oneman bands, which have been forced to establish a party because of electoral laws not permitting non-party (i.e. Independent) candidates to stand. An example is the List Pym Fortuyn (LPF) in the Netherlands, which centred on the eponymous party leader, without whom the group fragmented.1 The central argument of this chapter is that in Ireland, the only country in Western Europe where Independents are regularly elected (Mitchell 2001: 188), and where their representation in parliament is greater than the combined total in Western Europe (Weeks 2003: 221), some Independents with well-mobilised organisations do not differ greatly from some of these new parties, such as the aforementioned LPF. Indeed, it is a feasible hypothesis that, were a list electoral system introduced in Ireland whereby all candidates had to stand under a party name, many of the successful Independents could quite easily form a personalised list, and would henceforth be studied as new parties.
