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For most of the twentieth century the Irish party system was stable and unchanging, centred on Fianna Fáil, Europe's most electorally successful political party. That system suddenly collapsed in 2011 when Irish electoral politics became unusually volatile, ending decades of one-party dominance and leaving democratic elections unable to provide for government choice and accountability. This paper traces this transformation of the party system, unmasking the altered dynamics of the country's electoral competition, through a focus on its long-dominant natural party of government. It concludes by considering the challenges and prospects for Ireland's party democracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ireland’s electoral politics have always revolved around Fianna Fáil. While Whyte [Whyte, J. (1974) Ireland: politics without social bases, in: R. Rose (Ed.)Electoral Behavior: A Comparative Handbook, pp. 619–657 (New York, NY: The Free Press)] contended that ‘Irish party politics [are] sui generis: the context from which they spring is sui generis’, Garvin [Garvin, T. (1982) Theory, culture and Fianna Fáil: a review, in: M. Kelly, L. O'Dowd & J. Wickham (Eds.)Power, Conflict and Inequality, pp. 171–185 (Dublin: Turoe)] argued that ‘Fianna Fáil is a political formation which has  …  the power to defy the rather frail taxonomic systems of political scientists’. Political scientists may have been using the wrong comparators: rather than considering Fianna Fáil as a catch-all party it is better understood as a ‘natural governing party’. This article situates Fianna Fáil in terms of the theoretical models that account for the essential nature of political parties and the working of the competitive systems they create; and then uses those insights to compare Fianna Fáil with other dominant centre parties in Italy, Japan, India and Canada. It asks if Fianna Fáil is still the party it once was, and, if changed, with what consequences for our understanding of Irish politics. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

At one level this paper constitutes an electoral anthropology of party competition in Ireland. Focusing on one constituency, over three decades, the analysis reveals the complex and intertwined patterns of inter-party and intra-party competition that characterize Irish electoral politics and which, now institutionalized, contribute to the conservative cast of the country's politics. At a second level the argument points to the importance of the electoral system (here Proportional Representation by the single transferable vote) in structuring the behaviours of politicians who must work within it. In this regard an electoral system affects both the quality and quantity of competition, the character of party organization, and the capacity of a political system to recruit talent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has been argued that the Irish party system can best be accounted for in terms of the "Lipset--Rokkan centre--periphery concept". This paper questions this view and presents evidence to the contrary. Cleavages in the Irish social structure were not frozen into the party system that emerged in the post-independence period. In terms of the widely accepted typologies of Western European political development Ireland constitutes a deviant case. As such it deserves more attention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]