Theresa Reidy

Ballot Paper Photographs and Low-Information Elections in Ireland

In an attempt to facilitate greater voting participation in the Republic of Ireland, photographs of candidates have been placed on the ballot paper for local, national and European elections. Limited research undertaken in advance of the implementation of the photograph policy advised that the measure would assist people with literacy problems. However, social psychology research has long demonstrated that people are willing to make considerable judgements about a person when shown a photograph. The advent of ballot paper photographs allows candidates to be evaluated on the basis of their appearance. This article will explore how photographs could have become a factor in voter decision-making. Providing additional knowledge to encourage greater participation and engagement has introduced a possible new level of superficiality into the voter decision-making process.

Presidential Elections in Ireland: From Partisan Predictability to the End of Loyalty

This article assesses the seven presidential elections held in Ireland between 1945 and 2011 and argues that the best way of understanding these contests is to divide them into two separate categories: the four contests from 1945 to 1973 and the three contests from 1990 to 2011. The first category of presidential elections reflects the entirely stable and predictable pattern of party competition that represented politics in Ireland after Fianna Fáil first came to power in 1932. The second category reflects an entirely different type of politics in Ireland: one where presidential elections took place against a backdrop of a changing party system and an increasingly volatile electorate, where ties of party loyalty would loosen substantially over a 20-year period. The presidential contests of 1990, 1997 and 2011 all show evidence of increasing voter disconnect from the party system, and a shift away from the defining features of previous presidential elections. Predictable political stability has been replaced by a weakening of partisan voting as candidates come under more and more public scrutiny. By assessing the nomination processes, election campaigns and outcomes of Irelands presidential elections, evidence is shown of striking change in the dynamic of the elections from 1990.

Understanding the 2015 marriage referendum in Ireland: context, campaign, and conservative Ireland

ABSTRACT On 22 May 2015 the marriage referendum proposal was passed by a large majority of Irish voters and the definition of marriage in the constitution was broadened to introduce marriage equality. This referendum is remarkable for a number of reasons: (1) it is uniquely based on an experiment in deliberative democracy; (2) the referendum campaign was unusually vigorous and active; and (3) the voting patterns at the referendum point to a significant value shift along the deep seated liberal conservative political cleavage of Irish politics. This article provides an overview of the background to the referendum initiative, the campaign prior to the referendum, and the key factors that drove voter turnout and preference. Based on a post-referendum survey, we find that while support for the government of the day, political knowledge, and social attitudes have the same effects as commonly found in other referendums, the variation among social classes was less prevalent than usual and door-to-door canvassing by the two sides of the campaign impacted through turnout rather than vote preference. The voting behaviour of the different age groups suggests strong generational effects.

Blissful Union? Fine Gael and the European Union

Abstract Fine Gael presents itself as a model pro‐EU party but as in so many areas of EU politics, it provides a case study of how the dichotomy of elite commitment and popular disillusionment is manifested and managed. This article will examine the Europeanization of Fine Gael using the Ladrech (2002) framework. It begins by outlining the elite level positions which drive Fine Gael involvement in EU politics and identifies the ways in which the party has used its membership of the European Peoples Party–European Democrats (EPP‐ED) and European elections to further its political agenda and contribute indirectly to the development of public policy in Ireland. Attitudes to the EU, as displayed by ordinary party members, are also considered and serve to expose the dichotomy which exists between elites and lower level members. Europeanization, although evident, is not widespread and is invariably guided by wider domestic party objectives.

This time it’s different? Effects of the Eurovision Debate on young citizens and its consequence for EU democracy – evidence from a quasi-experiment in 24 countries

ABSTRACT For the very first time in EU history, the 2014 EP elections provided citizens with the opportunity to influence the nomination of the Commission President by casting a vote for the main Europarties’ ‘lead candidates’. By subjecting the position of the Commission President to an open political contest, many experts have formulated the expectation that heightened political competition would strengthen the weak electoral connection between EU citizens and EU legislators, which some consider a root cause for the EU’s lack of public support. In particular, this contest was on display in the so-called ‘Eurovision Debate’, a televised debate between the main contenders for the Commission President broadcasted live across Europe. Drawing on a quasi-experimental study conducted in 24 EU countries, we find that debate exposure led to increased cognitive and political involvement and EU support among young citizens. Unfortunately, the debate has only reached a very small audience.

Political Transformation in Ireland: Boom, Bust, and Beyond*

Ireland’s journey from the booming Celtic Tiger economy to a poor man of Europe was based primarily on a property boom and bust that made international headlines from 2008 to 2011. The country’s financial collapse, while prompted by unique Irish causes and circumstances, was rooted in the global financial crisis that especially affected several European states and was linked to the U.S. financial crisis and contraction. Ireland had experienced a period of rapid economic growth in the late 1990s, based on impressive productivity gains from investment in information technology, pharmaceuticals, and medical devices. In the early 2000s speculation in housing led to a property bubble or a “confidence trap.” Martin Wolf claims that economic theorists should be considered culpable for their inability to predict or explain financial crises like the one that came to Ireland and many other states in 2008. But we contend that the financial crisis was as much political as it was economic. One must appreciate the political circumstances that allowed and perhaps encouraged the kind of financial speculation that brought on the crisis. David Runciman’s theory about advanced democracies suggests that these types of governments muddle from crisis to crisis, and this tendency explains the confidence that the Irish possessed as their economy boomed on the back of a property bubble in the early 2000s. Oblivious to this confidence trap, Irish government policies tended to facilitate the economic bubble rather than to heed warnings of an inevitable

Ballot Paper Design: Evidence from an Experimental Study at the 2009 Local Elections

Abstract The overriding principle of ballot design is that it should not confer any a priori advantage to one candidate over another. Ballot format should not determine or condition an election outcome. Yet, there is a sizeable body of evidence which demonstrates that in many circumstances the design of ballot papers and voting machines contravenes the normative assumption of electoral neutrality. In this article, we look at the impact of ballot paper design at local elections in the Republic of Ireland (hereafter Ireland). The article uses data from an experimental election study conducted at the local elections in Ireland in 2009. Overall the study finds some evidence of a primacy effect and it also demonstrates that candidates located in the middle of the ballot face a challenge as they receive the lowest vote shares of all candidates across the four replica ballots. This mid-table obscurity remains even when party affiliation is known. Thus, it can be argued that candidates placed in such positions incur a disadvantage. To neutralise this effect, the article concludes with a recommendation that a system of random ordering of ballot positions across ballot papers should be implemented so as to ensure that each candidate appears at each ballot position on an equal number of times.

The Seanad election

Elections to Seanad Eireann take place within 90 days of the dissolution of Dail Eireann. The Seanad is the upper house of parliament and its members are elected in a complex process by a very small electorate. Consequently, the elections attract little public attention, taking place outside the public domain. This point was reinforced in 2007 with a public disagreement between RTE and Seanad candidates. RTE notified a candidate that ‘it would not be providing coverage for the elections to the Seanad because the vast majority of its audience has no say in who is elected’.1 A recurrent feature of every Seanad election campaign is a discussion on the democratic credentials of the elections.

Boom and bust: Economic voting in Ireland:

The global economic crisis presents new challenges for economic voting models. While there is a consensus that economic voting exists, even the most ardent supporters agree that it is a variable force and can only explain a portion of voting behaviour. This article investigates the impact of positive and negative economic performance on voting patterns. The idea that voters are more likely to punish governments for poor economic performance, the grievance asymmetry hypothesis, has found some empirical support, but in their comprehensive review of the economic voting literature, Lewis-Beck and Stegmaier concluded that the evidence of asymmetric economic voting was, at best, mixed. Ireland presents a clear test of the grievance asymmetric economic vote with recent elections taking place against backdrops of some of the highest economic growth rates in the world and then one of the most spectacular economic crashes. We demonstrate that economic shocks matter a great deal; Irish voters like their counterparts elsewhere in crisis hit states are unforgiving. Furthermore, the electoral change at the 2011 election in Ireland was extreme and challenges the consensus that economic voting is a small force.

Democratic revolution? Evaluating the political and administrative reform landscape after the economic crisis

Upon winning the general election in February 2011, Taoiseach elect Enda Kenny spoke of a ‘democratic revolution’. Within weeks, a programme for government was agreed between Fine Gael and Labour, promising to ‘radically reform an out-dated system of administration’ and determining to ‘change’ and ‘renew’ the political system. Much was made of the new government’s political and administrative reform plans. But how many of these reform plans were delivered? How effective were these plans in bringing about change and renewal to a political and administrative system found seriously wanting as the financial crash unfolded? And as Ireland emerges from recession, has anything really changed? These are the questions that guide this collection of articles. This special issue brings together contributions from some of the most eminent scholars of Irish politics to assess the extent to which the promises of political and administrative reform were delivered in the