The Parliamentary Behaviour of Minor Parties and Independents in Dáil Éireann

Abstract

This paper deals with how minor parties and independents act once they have won election to the parliament. Using a dataset of all votes in Dáil Éireann from 1937 to 2007 the rate of agreement with Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Labour for each independent and minor party candidate is calculated. Based on theories of the behaviour of parties and independents a number of hypotheses are formulated and tested. The conclusions of the paper are that minor parties are very likely to vote against the government when they are not a part of it and that for independents the particular typology matters. When independents are needed by the government, not only those independents needed but the entire body of independents are significantly more in agreement with the government than when they are not needed.

Keywords:

• parliamentary voting
• minor parties
• independents

Notes

1. The study of coalitions and coalitional behaviour is too comprehensive to go into detail with here, but elements of these arguments can be found in, for instance, Laver and Schofield (1990), and Laver and Shepsle (1996).

2. Carty (1981: 30) argues that members representing Clann na Poblachta and Clann na Talmhan were to all intents and purposes independents after 1957. However, they are in Walker (1992) registered as running under their respective party labels, though it should be noted that no official register of parties existed until 1963.

3. Thomas Burke who sat as an independent in the 13th Dáil cast only one vote as an independent. While some sources disagree on the nature of his status between 1943 and 1948, in the Dáil of 1943–1944 he cast three votes and between 1944 and 1948 he cast no votes.

4. Available on http://www.oireachtas.ie

5. I am grateful to Liam Weeks for supplying me with detailed data on the Irish independents.

6. Of the gene pool Fianna Fáil TDs presented in Table 6, four are members when Fianna Fáil was in opposition and two of these are in high agreement with Fianna Fáil, and one each in low and middle agreement.