Ireland

The Republic of Ireland is a unitary state covering around four-fifths of the land area on the island of Ireland. The remaining one-fifth, known variously as the ‘six counties’, ‘Northern Ireland’, or the ‘north of Ireland’, is part of the United Kingdom. The existence of two sovereign jurisdictions on this small island is a consequence of an early 20th century political settlement that gave the Republic of Ireland independence from British rule in 1922, leading to the creation of a republic in 1949. Despite the turbulent history of Anglo-Irish relations, Irish politicians, nationalist and unionist, worked within the Westminster political system and their understanding of parliamentary politics was shaped by this experience. When it came to establishing new political institutions in 1922, the rules and procedures of the House of Commons were adopted by the new parliament, as was the general parliamentary framework, with a popularly-elected lower house (Dáil) and an upper house (Seanad). However, there is some departure from conventional political institution-building at this point, for, as Coakley (1998, p.195-9) points out, the 60-seat upper house became quite unique in its composition. Second chambers generally represent either the population of a state or regions within a state and are either elected (directly or indirectly) or appointed. The Irish Seanad, however, was primarily designed to represent the views of interests such as business, labour, agriculture, administration, cultural and educational interests and others. In keeping with this quite exclusive selection of public interests, the route to a Seanad seat is through election by a restricted group of voters – local and national politicians determine the outcome of 43 seats, university graduates can vote to fill six seats and the Prime Minister (Taoiseach) appoints an additional eleven persons. Complex rules govern the nomination process and the vote counting procedures, the latter being conducted under rules similar to those governing general elections. This brings us to the second major deviation from British politics. The plurality electoral system was not adopted for the newly independent state. Instead, Irish political elites favoured a variant of proportional representation advocated by the British Electoral Reform Society known as proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote (PR-STV). The unrepresentative outcomes of the plurality system were much criticised by British electoral reformers at the turn of the 20th century and PR-STV was devised as a counter to its disproportional

effects. The new system placed a focus on the choice of individual voters and the highly proportional outcomes in terms of party strength made PR-STV particularly attractive to Irish politicians. The electoral system was strongly supported by Sinn Fein, whose founder, Arthur Griffith, was an early member of the Proportional Representation Society of Ireland. In 1918, PR-STV was enacted for one town council election and put into effect the following year. The proportionality of the result it delivered, with party representation closely mirroring voter support, excited considerable interest among reformers and Irish politicians. Shortly thereafter the British government decided to implement this new electoral system for the 1920 local elections in Ireland and then for the 1921 election securing Irish independence. Thus, as Sinnott notes, ‘By 1921, PR-STV had not only been endorsed by a significant section of the nationalist movement but had actually reached the statute books’ (1999, p.101). This form of PR was included in the 1922 constitution and specified in the Electoral Act of 1923. The fledgling independent state had opted for multi-member districts and maximising the representation of voter preferences over single-member districts and one-party dominance. Two attempts to change from PR-STV to a simple plurality system, in 1959 and again in 1968, were soundly defeated by the electorate in referendums. While there have been occasional discussions on changing the electoral system to single member districts and party lists put forward chiefly by Fine Gael, these suggestions have not found particular favour with elected representatives or the public. Indeed, the technical alteration of ballot casting and counting from a manual to an electronic process provoked heated debate in 2004, underlining public and political attachment to customary electoral practices. Party politics is historically dominated by two major parties that emerged from Sinn Fein in the 1920s. Fianna Fail (‘Soldiers of Destiny’) came to represent small farmers, industrial workers and small business owners and traditionally draws support from all social classes and economic segments of society. The party evolved a broad mass appeal from an early stage (it was formed in 1926) and on average commands the support of around 40 per cent of the electorate. Fine Gael (‘Family of the Irish’) formed the first post-independence government and has drawn support from wealthier sections of the Irish electorate – large farmers, professionals and large business owners. Its fortunes have fluctuated over the years, ranging from 23-40 per cent electoral support. The Irish Labour Party is the third long-lasting party, founded in 1918 as the political voice of the trade union movement. With the dominance of the nationalist agenda in Irish politics at the critical point of state formation, the Labour Party has long been the minor party in Irish politics, attracting between nine and twenty per cent of the popular vote. The last two decades have seen a fragmentation of the long-enduring three-party system with the rise and consolidation of new parties in the electoral arena. The Progressive Democrats, a neo-liberal party, was formed in 1985-6; Democratic Left emerged in the 1990s as an offshoot of a republican-socialist party and later merged with the Labour Party; while the Green Party also made its political mark in the 1990s. More recently, Sinn Fein (‘Ourselves Alone’) has come to pose an electoral challenge to both Fianna Fail and Labour with its left-of-centre and

republican appeal. Also represented in parliament is the tiny Socialist Party and a range of independent parliamentarians, some of whom are disaffected former members of Fianna Fail, others are non-party representatives. Fianna Fail was sufficiently strong to form single-party governments from the time it came to power in 1932 until 1992. Its dominance of politics and government was interspersed by occasional coalitions headed by Fine Gael and including the Labour party. Between 1979 and 1997, instability in the party system resulted in more frequent changes of government. Since 1997, a broadly right-ofcentre coalition comprising Fianna Fail and the Progressive Democrats has held office (Gallagher, Marsh and Mitchell, 2003).