From Mainstream to Minor and Back: The Irish Labour Party, 1987–1992

A BSTRACT While for much of the twentieth century Irish governments consisted of single parties, coalition government is now much more common. Furthermore, it is usual for minor parties to be part of these governments. This article looks at why minor parties come into existence, their policy performance in government and the electoral impact of government on minor parties. It is argued that the three are related -that minor parties emerge when larger parties have problems of policy 'appropriateness' (a large party is not seen as credible to deliver or cannot advocate certain non-mainstream policies) and 'governability' (a larger party is not widely seen as an acceptable/credible basis for a potential government). Larger parties take minor parties into government to solve both problems and 'concede' policy to them, which may have the effect of 'smothering' the minor party in government, leading to its demise.

Section: Labourmentioning

confidence: 92%

Punch Bags for Heavyweights? Minor Parties in Irish Government

O’Malley¹

2010

“…Ordinally, then, the phenomenon in which we are interested in Ireland is the 'fourth party', or 'new party', a category that might simply be described as 'minor party': a party that, to use the language of the comparative literature, is nontraditional, non-established, and non-mainstream. We may thus rule out the three 'permanent' members of the Irish party system from this category: the Labour Party is excluded, together with Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, even though, as it has been pointed out, the Labour Party may at times have matched the image of other parties here classified as 'minor' (McDaid & Rekawek, 2010), and it has indeed sometimes so been classified (Mair, 1991). This leaves a group of relatively distinctive parties corresponding to what were once called 'ephemeral minority parties' (Chubb, 1974: 74) -though, in reality, not all were entirely ephemeral.…”

Section: Defining Minor Partiesmentioning

confidence: 94%

The Rise and Fall of Minor Parties in Ireland

Coakley

2010

A BSTRACT Minor parties (defined as those outside the three-party core of the party system) have been a distinctive feature of Irish political life since independence in 1922. Of the approximately 50 such parties to appear since then, though, only a few have become politically relevant, and even these parties have tended to go through a short life cycle. This paper describes the profile of parties of this kind, seeking to place Irish minor parties in categories that have emerged in the comparative literature, and classifying them in respect of origin, electoral performance, strategic self-placement, and ideological orientation. The paper concludes with an effort to explain the rise and fall of minor parties in Ireland in the light of generalisations in the comparative literature, where institutional factors (including, but not confined to, the electoral system) and social psychological considerations (including in particular the issues of declining party identification and disillusionment with existing parties) have played a particular role.

“…Using Mair's (1991) classificatory schema with its upper limit for minor parties means of course that Labour is classified as a minor party. While discussion in this volume indicates such an assumption is somewhat debatable (Coakley, 2010;McDaid & Rekawek, 2010;Weeks, 2010a), to ensure consistency of comparison with Mair (1991) Labour is treated as such for the remainder of this discussion. Far from 'breaking the mould', Irish minor parties from this perspective appear to be very much in the shadow of their larger counterparts, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael.…”

Section: Minor Parties In Ireland In Comparative Perspectivementioning

confidence: 98%

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

Clark

2010

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.