Search

Party leaders are often regarded as crucial to a party's success. Successful leaders tend to be big personalities who dominate their party's organisation, policy development and electoral campaigns. But does that control come with a price? We test to see if such leaders damage their parties in the medium term. This happens because strong leaders might be ceded too much control of the party organisation, policy and electoral strategy. We specifically hypothesise that political parties will go through a period of leadership instability and electoral decline after strong leaders step down. Using a dataset with elections under party leaders in nine countries over a 25‐year period, and a qualitative case study, we find some evidence for the theory, which should prompt further research of the question. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: How do surges in female representation in public life affect media coverage? Can the media underrepresent the reality of women's progress? If so, is the source of underrepresentation the media itself or social elites that interact with the media? Methods: Using automatic content analysis, we study two remarkable step changes in women's role in public life in Ireland: the 2016 elections and 2012 Olympics. Results: The increase in female participation was associated with a new and substantial gender gap in coverage, which we attribute to the media, not other elites. Conclusions: We cannot assume that media coverage will increase proportionally as women advance in public life. The reemergence of bias when female representation jumps may also exist outside the media in any context where there are large numbers of decisions about whether to favor males or females. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article tests a theory to explain particularistic political spending not normally used on parliamentary systems. Using constituency-level data, we evaluate the merits of theories predicting whether parties reward their core voters or target floating or swing voters to maximise the party's electoral return. In order to bring new insights into the process of parliamentary pork in a system which incentivises garnering a personal vote, we introduce the decision-making rule (ministerial autonomy) as a variable and argue that the level of ministerial discretion in allocating funds coupled with the electoral system's incentives leads, in Ireland, to a form of distributive authoritarianism where the interests of ministers trump those of their party. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article examines the relationship between different ownership types in broadcast news to determine the portrayal of election coverage as a strategic game against a focus on policy issues. Using a content analysis of six television and radio programmes during the 2011 Irish general election, we test hypotheses about differences in coverage provided by public service programming with equivalent private sector coverage. Our findings improve upon two key aspects of earlier research on game-policy frames. First, we show that commercial outlets can produce content that has democratic value, and suggest that before reaching definitive judgements not only it is necessary to distinguish between radio and television programmes but it is also advisable to study individual programming on each medium. Second, in a key market segment, we show that there is a clear distinction between editorial choices on policy content between public and private radio. These findings suggest that policy-orientated private programming may react to factors such as a culture of public service broadcasting as well as regulatory interventionism. We also suggest that there are cases where policy-rich private programming is driven by different editorial values from its public counterpart which can benefit the public. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The framing of elections represents the most overt instance of the media’s power to influence politics. We content analyzed twelve newspapers’ coverage of the 2011 general election in Ireland. Ireland’s newspaper market has some special advantages for social scientists, as it allows us to separate the newspaper types/formats (tabloid vs. broadsheet) from their commercial basis (vulnerability or otherwise to short-term sales and profits). Therefore, we are able to make a particular contribution to the long-standing debate about the interaction of free market capitalism and the media. Our results do not find a homogeneous general election frame in Ireland. The variation in framing across Irish newspapers was much greater than that between the five countries for which we can find strictly comparable results. The different commercial statuses of the newspapers do seem to be related to different dominant frames of election coverage, but only after we develop a new measure that takes account of the relative overall prominence of election coverage in the newspapers examined. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Presented is a political survey of the country of Ireland for the year 2009. It is noted that the continued impact in Ireland of the global financial crisis of 2008-09 and subsequent recession indicated that government supported candidates were unlikely to be successful in the local elections and for election as members of the European Parliament. A number of other events and developments are discussed including the nationalization of the Anglo-Irish Bank, the establishment of the National Assets Management Agency, and child abuse in the Catholic Church.

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses national politics in Ireland in 2007. Elections for the Dáil Éireann, one of the two chambers of Ireland's Oireachtas, the bicameral national parliament, were held on May 24, 2007. Topics include the seemingly rushed and ill-prepared manner in which Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Bertie Ahern called the election, the growing Irish economy, and the preparations for the Democratic and Unionst party (DUP) and Sinn Féin to enter government with each other. Also discussed are the low opinion poll ratings for Ahern's party during the campaign.

The article reports on issues regarding politics in Ireland in 2006. The year was an extension of the electoral campaign in preparation for the election to be held in early summer 2007. Political parties in the country considered the possibility of coalition partnerships, one of which is the intention of Fine Gael and Labour to form a government together by releasing a series of joint-policy papers. The dismal poll ratings of the Progressive Democrats party (PD) and PD minister of justice Michael's McDowell's tendency to irritate members of Fianna Fáil are discussed.

There are good prima facie reasons to believe that directly electing a prime minister may provide the holder of that office with a tremendous power resource. Indeed some countries with weak prime ministers have debated this possible change, and one, Israel, carried it through. Using a theoretical argument based on the number of veto points in a political system, this article proposes that a directly elected prime minister will not increase the power of a prime minister. It studies what actually happened in Israel, and offers alternative explanations for the weakness of and lack of cohesion in its executive. Similarly, other factors are identified as causes of prime ministerial weakness in Italy and Japan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article looks at the government of Ireland in 2004. A chart displaying the results of the 2004 national elections is presented, focusing on the number of seats in the European Parliament attained by political parties such as the Labour Party, the Green Party, and Fine Gael. Changes made to the cabinet of Taoiseach Bertie Ahern are reviewed, including the appointments of Brian Cowen as Minister of Finance, Séamus Brennan as Minister of Social Welfare, and Dermot Ahern as Minister of Foreign Affairs. The author also comments on the results of the national referendum.

Presents highlights of political issues in Ireland in 2002. Results of the general election; Claims of the Flood Report regarding the alleged involvement of Ray Burke, Mnister of Foreign Affairs, in corrupt payments in the 1980s; Decision of the electorate on the referendums of abortion and the Nice Treaty.

The article discusses issues concerning national politics in Ireland. According to the authors, the election in June 1999 would be a chance to see if political scandals would affect the support of the government after the first election which was held eight years ago. The election was conducted simultaneously with the election to the European Parliament. The turnout of the local election was 50.3% down by 5% of the 1991. Ianna Fáil lost its seat to Dana Rosemary Scallon, a Christian conservative from Derry.

The article offers information on political issues and developments in Ireland as of the year 1998. The highlights of the Irish politics during this period include the Belfast Agreement at Easter, which offered a way forward through several reforms and the establishment of new institutions, and its acceptance by the electorate in May 1998. In addition, most of the public's concerns were focused on problems of rapidly rising property prices and traffic difficulties attributed to economic success. Lastly, the Labor Party achieved victory from the three by-elections that took place.

The article focuses on politics in Ireland in 2005. It states that two by-elections occurred in 2005 due to the appointment of two members of Teachta Dála, the lower house of the Oireachtas to European Union posts. It mentions that increased pressure was put on the Irish Republican Army and the political party Sinn Féin (SF) after members of SF were arrested in relations to money laundering, as well as the murder of a man in a pub brawl in Belfast. It comments on issues concerning workers' rights and immigration, a growing rift between the government political parties Progressive Democrats and Fianna Fáil, and negotiations between the Labour Party and Fine Gael on forming a coalition government after the next election.