Bailiwicks, locality, and religion - 3 elements in an irish dail constituency election

Abstract

This article is essentially a case study of voting patterns in an Irish Dail Constituency. But in this analysis we also deal with a larger question: how a stable party system exists in a constituency characterized by feelings of religious separatism and where elections are conducted under a system of Proportional Representation (PR) and multi-member constituencies. It is usually argued that PR, by encouraging the representation of minorities, facilitates the development of a weak multi-party system. Following the institutional argument, the system of multi-member constituencies should, by diffusing power, add structural incentive to intra-party factionalism at the constituency level. Yet the constituency we look at contains one of the strongest local party systems in the Republic. Our evidence suggests that the operation of electoral systems is played upon by historical circumstance and the ingenuity of politicians. Strong sociological forces, such as partisan feeling and parochial loyalties, were harnessed by the political parties to a system of party bailiwicks which mitigated much of the structural conflict inherent in the system of multi-member constituencies. As events developed, by the time of the General Election of 1969 the religious cleavage in the constituency came to serve the ends of a competitive two-party system.