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WHEN WE ARE looking at the US and Irish systems of government, we are looking at two completely different blueprints for government. In comparative politics, the range of institutional options for democratic states is limited. With the exception of Switzerland, the majority of existing democracy is either presidential – like the United States or parliamentary, like Ireland and most of continental Europe.
These essential differences in the design features of the system of government make it difficult to compare Irish and US elections, per se. The terms of reference are different, and the impact of a presidential election upon the US political system is quite different to the impact that a change of Taoiseach makes to the Irish system of government. But why this should be so, and the impact that it has on our national system of politics, is worth considering.
Electoral systems
The US electoral system is designed so that there should be overall support for the President, not only in numbers, but across the country as a whole. Presidential candidates will typically place a low campaign priority on states they can easily win or are most likely to lose – focusing all their efforts on the decisive swing states.
The Irish electoral system are almost the complete opposite to this. The transferable element to our Proportional Representation system – in other words, our ability to rank our preferences down the list of candidates – creates a quite different electoral competition. In our system, candidates need to go out and knock on doors and they need to appeal to those undecided voters in the middle of the road, whose second and third preferences may make the difference in the final allocation of votes. This electoral system drives candidates into the centre and contributes sometimes to the sense of frustration that there is not much difference between our main parties. It is the design feature that underpins our capacity for coalition government and negotiated ‘programmes for government’ between different political parties in government.
Changing deckchairs on the Titanic
On the one hand, this can lead to a sense of frustration with Irish party politics, contributing to that age old cliché that ‘changing government is like changing deckchairs on the Titanic’. The mutual dependence between the government and legislature means that in Ireland executive power is underpinned by political support in the Dáil, which typically lasts as long as the government does. This gives the Irish executive significant governmental capacity: alongside the British and French systems of government, the Irish executive branch of government is considered to be one of the most powerful in Europe, by virtue of its ability to control the parliamentary agenda, dissolve the parliament at will, and declare elections in a time of its own choosing. If Barack Obama had enjoyed half as much executive power as Enda Kenny does, we would have witnessed a significantly more radical reform of US healthcare and might already have indirectly benefited from a more decisive and substantial US economic stimulus and recovery plan.
Irish executive power is evidently much stronger than that of President of US: the current series of decisive government decisions regarding the budget attest to Irish governmental capacity. Still, however, the co-dependence of our executive and legislature means that we can rest assured that this level of executive authority would not proceed were it not supported by a majority in parliament. Whether the support is luke warm or abstentionist, the policies that we are being subjected to at present represent the tacit will of the majority of the people that we elected.
Tiny bit left, tiny bit right
Accountability for executive governmental action rests ultimately with us and our electoral system ensures that we are governed by the poltics of consensus. This government is enacting the bail-out agreement of the last government. There are to be no radical shifts between governments in Ireland. A tiny bit left, a small bit to the right. The 2011 election demonstrated this.
In this respect, there is something quite refreshing about watching US politics and seeing the clash of opposites in a system where there is scant rationale to play to the middle ground – Obama above all others should have learned this lesson. Yet the sad irony is that most ordinary people do fall in the middle ground and they are not being represented.
Our system is able to produce a consensus: we all want better medical care; we all want the elderley to be looked after; we all want children to be protected; we’d all like more gardai to tackle crime. Our arguments are chiefly about how we will deliver the things that we all want. And in this dimension, we are somewhat handicapped by an electoral system that places more emphasis on the local and the personal good, than it does on the national and the common good.
But when we look across the Atlantic to the most conspicuous current example of how government design conclusively circumscribes political possibilities, it should prompt us to think more clearly about the impact of our own system design on our own politics. Unlike the Americans, we have a chance to join in a national conversation about this in the upcoming constitutional convention. Ask the Americans now sitting in the dark on the upper floors of their flooded buildings if they had a chance to influence how their politics works would they take it?
Maura Adshead is Head of the Department of Politics and Public Administration at the University of Limerick.
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Why can’t we have a system like Switzerland, Direct Democracy. How hard would it be in the internet age for people to vote directly, like on the bank bailout or on budget decisions. Are they afraid of us making the right decisions. Democracy in the States and pretty much everywhere else is a illusion, doesn’t mean jack.
Would any of us have known enough to vote on the bank bailout deal?
As for budget decisions we would all vote for the measures that suited us and against those that didn’t
Bad and all as the present system is it is better than a free for all.
it works perfectly in switzerland so why wouldnt it work here.
Well Justin, could we have got it more wrong?
Maybe it’s time the Irish looked across the Atlantic more throughly, having the British run Ireland wasn’t too popular, having the EU run it is rapidly losing popularity, why not get O’Bama to take a try? 51st State?
We could become Area 51, aliens everywhere?
Right, the changes would be hardly noticeable.
I’d like that, Ireland would be part of the US. Tougher approach towards welfare, crime, immigration and we’d definitely take back our fisheries and natural resources. Win win
We’d take back our fisheries and give them to huge conglomerates who would outsource the fishing industry to China.
Fair enough, I don’t really know what I’m talking about anyway
No one does, Cholly.
We would all have guns :) oh and our own sickening bible belt rejecting science :)
Ok you all win, I have particular annoyance with bible nuts and creationists! The whole rejection of the sciences that’s growing in America is frightening. I remember reading somewhere that 1/3 of Americans don’t believe in evolution
cholly look up tim minchin evolution, the figure is more like 1/2 with a further 1/3 believing in evolution under supernatural control
The author is seriously wrong in , at least , one respect. It is stated that the the Irish Government can dissolve the Dail. I thought the Taoiseach can REQUEST the President to dissolve it . Did we not have this in the not too distance? Was the late Brian Lenihan Snr involved ?
*distant past *
One would not like a system like the USA whereby the majority cannot elected their President. Gore received the popular vote , but due to this crazy system of electroal college votes he did not get elected. and Bush did. The rest is history and the World suffered because of it
Bad example, if the recount was allowed to go ahead Gore would have probably won Florida and the Presidency.
Politicians earn a large salary on the premise that they know what they’re doing when in fact it’s the highly paid advisers in the background that do all the work and prompt them
America is a constitutional republic, and so is Ireland.
Look at what just happened in California with proposition 30. Another tax increase on the wealthy amounts to more debt and job losses in that state.
“Democracy is 4 wolves and one sheep deciding on what is for dinner”
America and Ireland are democratic republics. Get used to it.
California is doing just fine, despite Prop 30′s anonymous opponents in Arizona spending 11 million to defeat a measure that would take effect in another state. Wonder why?
Oh, temporary tax increases on those making more than a million a year!
It is strange you have ideas about “what happened in California” when the proposition hasn’t even taken effect yet.
The proposition actually saves jobs in colleges and universities. It makes higher education more affordable for everyone.
If you don’t like democracy, try moving to Saudi Arabia.
I assume you’re implying that the “wolves” are the super-rich? So they must constitute 80% of the population? Oh wait, no. Proposition 30 was democratically approved by a majority “sheep” population.
Each of the candidates spent a billion dollars running for office.
The money didn’t come without strings attached. Be on guard to prevent that happening here.
That would never happen here.
I think parliamentary system is slightly better than the US system. In the US it is too easy to deflect or take all the credit for something when really the whole system has to work for something to happen. For example the surplus in the 90′s Bill Clinton takes credit but the Republican’s also take credit because they controlled Congress. But I think state and local government is much better in the US.
were a democracy?? I had no idea!!
General elections, local elections, referenda, do try to keep up there Patrick!!!
We aren’t a democracy. We are a Republic.
It’s in the title of our country
Ireland is a democratic republic. The two terms are not mutually exclusive.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy
Well said
It makes feck all difference corruption is deeply ingrained on both sides of the Atlantic
“This electoral system drives candidates into the centre and contributes sometimes to the sense of frustration that there is not much difference between our main parties.”
Seriously? Your complaint is that Irish politics isn’t extreme and partisan enough? I’ll take Labour-Gael over the republican party any day of the week. Encouraging politicians to appeal to the entire population is a good thing.
We should go down the US road of a Presidential government whose members don’t have to be parliamentarians and therefore are not constantly looking over their shoulders at party rivals in their constituencies taking their seats. Unlike the American syste, he/she should be elected by direct popular vote. The dithering over the location of the children’s hospital shows that Coalition govt is ineffective. The Oireachtas should function as a check and balance on the executive. Unlike the American system however, I would have both houses vote by simple majority. Much of the paralysis in the American system derives from the ability of 41 Senators to prevent votes.
have your say