Punch Bags for Heavyweights? Minor Parties in Irish Government

Abstract

While for much of the twentieth century Irish governments consisted of single parties, coalition government is now much more common. Furthermore, it is usual for minor parties to be part of these governments. This article looks at why minor parties come into existence, their policy performance in government and the electoral impact of government on minor parties. It is argued that the three are related – that minor parties emerge when larger parties have problems of policy ‘appropriateness’ (a large party is not seen as credible to deliver or cannot advocate certain non‐mainstream policies) and ‘governability’ (a larger party is not widely seen as an acceptable/credible basis for a potential government). Larger parties take minor parties into government to solve both problems and ‘concede’ policy to them, which may have the effect of ‘smothering’ the minor party in government, leading to its demise.

Keywords:

• minor parties
• cabinet government
• electoral effects of government

Acknowledgments

The author would like to thank Nicole Bolleyer, Alistair Clark, Liam Weeks and two anonymous reviewers for useful comments on earlier versions of this paper.

Notes

1. The second election of this year was chosen because it was the election in which the party system settled down after independence. All data come from Gallagher and Weeks (2010).