Measuring patterns of party support in Ireland

Abstract

There is no doubt that the use of 'sociological' classes rather than market research categories produces a clearer patterning of party support in Galway West. There is no reason to suppose that this finding would be any different at a national level. This suggests strongly that at least a partial explanation for the apparently weak social patterning of party support at national level in Ireland has been the use of inappropriate categories of social classification that have masked rather than highlighted the patterns that in fact exist in the electorate. The 'politics without social bases' thesis may be more a product of the data thus far available than a reflection of reality. The patterns of party support revealed by the redefined social classes are strong. Certainly, they are strong enough to argue that party politics in Ireland does, indeed, have social bases.