ABSTRACT
A democracy might be - perhaps ought to be - judged by, inter alia, the extent of popular participation in the making of political decisions. Elections, and in Ireland referenda also, are the opportunities for participation offered by the system to the people as a whole. In practice, until the eighties, general elections usually determined which party or group of parties would form the government; the Dail merely ratified a decision already made. The electoral system used in general elections to the Dail is, in the words of Bunreacht na hEireann, 'the System of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote' in multi-member constituencies. The quota used in Irish elections is the Droop quota, so called because it was proposed by H. R. Droop in 1869. The single transferable vote system in multi-member constituencies has been retained without any major changes throughout the whole life of the state.
