The editors and contributors behind polticalreform.ie have teamed with a large volunteer team of project managers, web designers and others to produce ReformCard a measurement tool to rank each party based on the quality of their policies on political reform. We hope this will prove a critical instrument in informing the election 2011 debate. It…
Posted by David Farrell (December 28, 2010) To succeed, political reform needs three things to happen: a reason for the reform, leadership to drive it, and engagement by citizens. We have the first; there are early signs of the second; the third is still a long way away.
The Irish Times has an interesting series this week on where we should go from here. Some of the ideas so far are insightful and thought provoking. Joseph O’Connor points to the huge programme of political reform which is needed and argues for a bottom up approach that envisages change coming from the people inlcuding…
David Farrell (December 20, 2010) Political systems are very sticky. It takes a lot to uproot and alter them. This is why very few of the world’s established democracies have experienced the sort of radical reform that websites like this are calling for Ireland. The fact is that political systems are hard to change: once…
By Bill Kissane. There are different ways of involving the public in higher law making. Constitutions can be drafted by constituent assemblies or constitutional conventions directly elected for that purpose. Constitutional change can result from extraordinary public debates outside the formal representative arena, when a majority of the people back radical change. Alternatively, the people…
Posted by David Farrell (December 8, 2010) Based on the proceedings of the 2010 MacGill Summer School, the MacGill Report 2010 – Reforming the Republic, edited by Joe Mulholland will be launched at the MacGill Forum to be held on Thursday, December 16th at the Royal College of Surgeons, St Stephen’s Green from 9.00 a.m.…
Posted by Kenneth McDonagh, Monday 6th December On Saturday afternoon last, I attended the first meeting of a new grassroots movement called ‘Second Republic’. As someone who has stared forlornly from the lectern at a mere scattering of undergraduates, the very fact that up to 80 people freely gave up their time to discuss political…
Icelandic political scientist Silja Bara Omarsdottir writes about waking up as a newly elected representative to the country’s new constitutional assembly here. The assembly is a direct result of the Pots and Pans Revolution which took place in Iceland after the banking crisis tanked the country’s economy just over two years ago. Should we think…
Jennifer Kavanagh 1st December 2010 As it currently stands, if someone wants to see the current cabinet papers on the IMF bailout they must wait until 2040. It’s almost like the last line in the Oliver Stone film “JFK” where the father tells the son to wait for 30 years to see if he was…
by: Matt Wall. This post is in response to Elaine’s ‘10 proposals for political reform’. It seems that there is now an incontestable case for far-reaching political reform in the light of all that has happened in Ireland since late 2008; and this case has been crystallised particularly vividly over the last week. However, while…
Irish Politics Forum 