Yesterday’s conference on constitutional reform brought together lawyers, political scientists and economists to discuss the question whther Ireland needs constitutional reform. Though the only media coverage of the even related to Michael McDowell ‘slamming’ the media, a much more interesting conclusion emerged. There was a surprising consensus on the answer to the question set –…
In today’s Irish Times (http://bit.ly/azsuil) Labour leader, Eamon Gilmore provides more detail about his proposal for a Constitutional Convention: “Labour’s proposal is that we should convene a 30-member constitutional convention with an open mandate. Ten of its members would be drawn from the Oireachtas, 10 from non-governmental associations and organisations, and 10 ordinary citizens selected…
Posted by Dan O’Brien Electoral systems are like exchange rate regimes – none is perfect and all have downsides. I have not suggested that changing Ireland’s system is a panacea, but rather that it, and the making more normal the way the executive is formed, would be the two biggest steps in improving the effectiveness…
In today’s Irish Times John Rogers is the latest to propose electoral reform as the solution to all our woes. The gist of his proposed new system is as follows: “Let’s assume a Dáil of, say, 120 deputies. Let us arbitrarily, for the sake of discussion, divide that membership into two groups. The first comprises…
With the British media all dewy-eyed over yesterday’s Rose Garden love fest, some of the more interesting details in the Conservative/LibDem coalition agreement have slipped by largely unnoticed, particularly those relating to electoral and political reform (summarized in an earlier posting on this site) – one or two of which are worth considering here. The…
This is in the text of the LibDem-Tory agreement 6. Political Reform The parties agree to the establishment of five-year fixed-term parliaments. A Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government will put a binding motion before the House of Commons in the first days following this agreement stating that the next general election will be held on the first…
In the absence of parliament’s ability to form a new government without recourse to an election, a minority government could be forced to limp on until its fixed term ends.
With electoral system reform very much on the agenda in the UK at the moment, it would seem that the considerations of the Jenkins Commission should be at least getting a nod from the various players involved. For anybody interested here is a link to the full report of the Commission. The Commission was opposed…
One half of last night’s RTE Aftershock programming was devoted to political reform, with both commentators calling for a new constitution to replace Bunreacht na hÉireann. In essence Dan O’Brien of the Economist Intelligence Unit argued that PR-STV ought to be replaced by a list system (he did not specify whether that should be open…
First-past-the-post’s big advantage, its proponents say, is that it is supposed to deliver clear government, but as we can see in this election it does not always do that. Britain now has what the British in doom-laden fashion call a hung parliament. They seem genuinely shocked that they may have to negotiate ‘behind closed doors’…
Irish Politics Forum 