1.8 million Australian voters used the ‘early voting’ facility provided by the Australian electoral commission in the three weeks before today’s election to cast their votes, a record number. The Australians also have facilities for voting if a citizen happens to be outside of the electoral district in which they are registered on the day of the election.…
David Farrell (July 29, 2010) A letter in today’s Irish Times makes the case for votes for emigrants: Madam, – As it is now agreed 1, that political and administrative corruption rots (our) society from the inside; 2, that root and branch reform is needed and 3, that we should look to the Irish diaspora…
David Farrell (July 22, 2010) The Joint Committee launched its long-anticipated final report (relating to its deliberations over the electoral system) earlier today — running at over 200 pages, with 29 recommendations. There is lots to pick through, but for me the main headlines are the following: The establishment of a Citizen’s Assembly to consider…
David Farrell (July 17, 2010) A letter in today’s Irish Times calls for debate about political renewal: Madam, – Now that the members of the Dáil and Seanad have gone to the beaches and the races, discussion of public affairs moves to the summer schools, where participants listen to the great and the good in…
Eoin O’Malley takes Dr Ed Walsh to task for his call to reform the electoral system. Essentially he argues if we want to reform the political system we need to rebalance power within the political system. We need to enable greater scrutiny of government to allow the opposition and backbenchers do their job. The public…
David Farrell (July 5, 2010) The following letter appeared in today’s Irish Times: Madam, – In recent times, I have wondered whether the collective membership of the Dáil has the ability to cope with matters of national importance, which impact on the daily lives of our citizenry. The low and blinkered level of debate relating…
The Summer School will analyse the political, economic and administrative systems that have allowed our economy to be brought to its knees and will propose solutions. The nature and structures of our parliamentary democracy and our political culture will come under particular scrutiny.
In a forthcoming article on the relationship between candidate gender and electoral success in the British Journal of Political Science, Schwindt-Bayer, Malecki, and Crisp look at how gender affects candidate performance in three contexts where PR-STV systems are employed: the lower houses of Malta and Ireland, and the Australian Senate.
In the various debates on the media, on twitter and on blogs like this there has been much call for specifics, for real practical suggestions on reforms that could be implemented without the need for full scale referendum debates over constitutional reform. To that end, those of us involved in making regular contributions to this…
Few could argue that the regime of political finance has not had an impact on Irish politics and policy. It was the famous Tent at Ballybrit each year which symbolised the symbiotic relationship between Fianna Fáil and the property industry. Thanks to Elaine Byrne we know that the property industry accounted for more donations than…
Irish Politics Forum 