European University Institute Library

A conservative revolution?, electoral change in twenty-first century Ireland, edited by Michael Marsh, David M. Farrell, Gail McElroy

eng

no index present

non fiction

A conservative revolution?

959365259

edited by Michael Marsh, David M. Farrell, Gail McElroy

electoral change in twenty-first century Ireland

The 2011 general election in the Republic of Ireland, which took place against a backdrop of economic collapse, was one of the most dramatic ever witnessed. The most notable outcome was the collapse of Fianna Fáil, one of the world's most enduring and successful parties. In comparative terms Fianna Fáil's defeat was among the largest experienced by a major party in the history of parliamentary democracy. It went from being the largest party in the state (a position it had held since 1932) to being a bit player in Irish political life. And yet ultimately, there was much that remained the same, perhaps most distinctly of all the fact that no new parties emerged. It was, if anything, a "conservative revolution". A Conservative Revolution? examines underlying voter attitudes in the period 2002-11. Drawing on three national election studies the book follows party system evolution and voter behaviour from boom to bust. These data permits an unprecedented insight into a party system and its voters at a time of great change, as the country went through a period of rapid growth to become one of Europe's wealthiest states in the early twenty-first century to economic meltdown in the midst of the international Great Recession, all of this in the space of a single decade. In the process, this study explores many of the well-established norms and conventional wisdoms of Irish electoral behaviour that make it such an interesting case study for comparison with other industrialized democracies. --, Provided by publisher

Foreword, Michael Laver. Editors' Preface. 1: Introduction: The 2011 Election in Context, Michael Marsh, David M. Farrell, and Gail McElroy. 2: Class Politics in Ireland: How Economic Catastrophe Realigned Irish Politics Along Economic Divisions, James Tilley and John Garry. 3: The Economy and the Vote in Irish National Elections, Kevin M. Leyden and Michael S. Lewis-Beck. 4: Voting Through Boom and Bust: Information and Choice at Irish General Elections, 2002-2011, Patrick Bernhagen and Heinz Brandenburg. 5: Party Competition in Ireland: the Emergence of a Left-Right Dimension?, Gail McElroy. 6: The Lack of Party System Change in Ireland in 2011, Shaun Bowler and David M. Farrell. 7: How Generational Replacement Undermined the Electoral Resilience of Fianna Fáil and Facilitated its 2011 Electoral Meltdown, Cees van Der Eijk and Johan A. Elkink. 8: The Malleable Nature of Party Identification, Robert Thomson. 9: Pathological Parochialism or a Valuable Service? Attitudes to the Constituency Role of Irish Parliamentarians, Michael Gallagher and Jane Suiter. 10: In the Line of Duty: The Moral Basis of Turnout in the 2011 Irish Election, André Blais, Carol Galais, and Theresa Reidy. 11: After 2011: Continuing the Revolution, Michael Marsh. 12: A Conservative Revolution? The Disequilibrium of Irish Politics, Eoin O'Malley and R. Kenneth Carty. Appendix: The INES 2011 Questionnaire