Breaking the Mould or Fiddling at the Edges? Ireland’s Minor Parties in Comparative and Systemic Perspective

Abstract

A BSTRACT This article attempts to place the discussion of minor parties and independents in Ireland in comparative and systemic perspective. Extending previous classifications of party systems in Western Europe to recent elections, the analysis highlights Ireland's continuing classification as a 'large party system'. Minor parties and independents are nevertheless shown to have made a range of contributions to Irish political life, from offering an additional choice to dealigned voters and encouraging political participation to offering new policy platforms. The article goes on to argue that discussion, in this volume, of minor parties and independents in Ireland considerably illuminates analysts' understanding of the phenomenon in both Irish and comparative perspective.

The Rise and Fall of Minor Parties in Ireland

“…While Weeks (2010) and Clark (2010) indicate that there are fewer minor parties and fewer voters for these parties in Ireland, the comparative experience varies by country. The Irish pattern is thus rather different from the Netherlands and Switzerland, where small parties have been able to survive across generations, as well as France and Italy, where the survival of new parties, especially on the right, has been a big issue, however great their ephemeral political relevance.…”

Minor Parties in Irish Political Life: An Introduction

“…As Coakley (2010) notes, this concerns identifying two boundaries: the upper boundary separates minor from major while the lower involves differentiating genuine minor parties from independent candidates. He provides a general discussion on the ambiguity concerning a definition of minor parties, although there is a broader discussion concerning size that is referred to by Clark (2010) and McDaid and Rekawek (2010), namely, does minor imply small? A major party used to attracting a sizeable share of votes and seats might have a poor election, losing the majority of its representation, à la the Progressive Conservatives in Canada in 1993.…”

“…Both BQ and the PC (which won just two federal seats) were small parties, but do their rise and fall constitute the same phenomenon? To resolve this conundrum, both Weeks (2010) and Clark (2010) in their comparative papers employ Mair's definition of minor parties (1991) that includes those winning between 1.5 and 15 per cent of the national vote on average at more than three elections. For reasons of inclusivity, the lower boundary of this definition is loosened for cases of analysis within the Irish political system.…”

“…In this context, rather than laying out a diktat for contributors, we encouraged them to provide their own discussion of this issue where necessary. Some, like Clark (2010), have used a comparative measure, borrowed from Mair (1991), to determine whether Labour warrants inclusion (it does for both of them). O'Malley (2010) uses his own arbitrary measure, which results in his inclusion of Labour for some elections, but not all.…”

‘A veto for the government’: the Money Message as a foil to new legislation

“…Second, we summarise the Irish case, beginning by exploring the traditionally marginalised status of minor parties in Ireland (e.g. Clark, 2010;O'Malley, 2010;Weeks, 2010a), before outlining the outcome of the 2016 election, and explaining in detail the implementation and role of the Money Message within the legislative process. Third, we identify our dataset (Lynch & Lawlor, 2019), explain our methods, and describe the interviews we undertook with TDs/Seanadóirí and two Assistants.…”