A 10 Point Manifesto Towards a Second Republic

Posted by Elaine Byrne An excellent  collection of discussion papers on options to transform Governance and Leadership in the Irish Republic for the Better by the Dublin City Business Association can be found here The State We Are In – Mr Roderic O’Connor Planning for Problem and Solutions – Mr James Kelly Rebuilding the Economy – Mr…

Policy Advisers: who are they and what do they do?

Liam Weeks* Micheál Martin recently suggested that the government should pay more attention to experts outside of the political process in formulating its strategy. But what about the paid experts already brought in from the ‘outside’ to advise the government? I am referring to the special advisers of every minister and minister of state. Who…

Are independents a danger to democracy?

Liam Weeks* Recent media reports of the voting intentions of independent TDs re-the Finance Bill seem to imply that independents undermine the stability of Irish democracy. The claim is that Jackie Healy-Rae, Michael Lowry et al are acting selfishly by not voting in favour of the Finance Bill or by attempting to extract promises from…

Is the only truly new Dáil an independent Dáil ?

Liam Weeks* Reading the calls for reform from afar, there seems to be one overarching theme: a desire to improve the calibre of parliamentarians. To date, most of these calls have been misguided as many from outside the political science community persist with the notion of electoral reform as a panacea that will transform the…

Thank You.

The editors of politicalreform.ie wish to thank contributors and posters for participating in the website over the last six months. To date, over 100,000 hits have been recorded and this project continues to grow with new contributors and a greater variety of topics. Any suggestions on how to develop the website would be most appreciated.…

SHOULD IRISH EMIGRANTS RETAIN THEIR VOTING RIGHTS?

Guest post by Eleanor Fitzsimons (posted by Elaine Byrne) The prospect of a general election early in 2011 has seen the re-emergence of a contentious debate as to whether our sizable diaspora should be allowed to vote. Ireland is unusual in the fact that those not ‘ordinarily resident’, i.e. living in Ireland on 1 September…

Land Annuities and the Default Option

Peter Mair (December 17, 2010: posted by David Farrell) One of the issues that is likely to dominate the forthcoming general election is the question of whether Ireland should default on the crippling debt repayments. Reading both on and between the lines in the analyses of a number of economic commentators in recent weeks, I…

China’s Long March to Modernity

Beijing’s response to the award of the Nobel Peace Price to a leading Chinese dissident tells us something important about the country’s transition By Joern-Carsten Gottwald, Neil Collins and Andrew Cottey For the first time in the history of the Nobel Peace Prize a citizen of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) was awarded this…