Proportionality, P.R. and S.T.V. in Ireland
| Author | Peter Mair,Michael Laver |
| Published date | 01 December 1975 |
| Date | 01 December 1975 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9248.1975.tb00086.x |
| Subject Matter | Article |
PROPORTIONALITY,
P.R.
AND
S.T.V.
IN
IRELAND
PETER MAIR
National
Institute for Higher
Eiiucation,
Limerick
and
MICHAEL LAVER
University of Liverpool
PROPORTIONAL
Representation, with the Single Transferable Vote, was first
introduced into the national elections of the Irish Free State with a view
to
obtaining the electoral participation of the Southern Unionist minority. Arthur
Griffith, the architect of Sinn Fein, and a signatory
of
the 1921 Treaty which had
created the Irish Free State, had guaranteed both the adoption of PR/STV for
elections to Dail Eireann (the lower house of the new bicameral legislature) and
full Unionist representation in the Senate (the upper house) in an effort to secure
the integration of that minority into the new state.’ PR had first been used in
Ireland in the election to the local corporation in Sligo,’ where a strong effort was
made to encourage the participation of the small, but economically dominant,
Protestant minority.
The STV electoral system was introduced in Northern Ireland at the same time
as it had been adopted at a national level in the South, but was soon abolished by
the Unionist Government, for local elections in 1922, and for Stormont, or
‘national’, elections in 1929. On 15 June 1972 the Westminster Government an-
nounced the experimental reintroduction of this type of PR for Northern Ireland,
and implemented it in the province’s local and regional elections in 1973. The
intention was to reinforce the principle of power-sharing embodied in the
Northern Ireland Constitution Act by proportionately representing all shades of
opinion. This should be set in the context of the commonly held official view that
not only was there a substantial ‘moderate centre’ which had previously been
underrepresented by the simple plurality system, but that the more vocal splinter
groups whose policies tended towards either extreme did not command wide-
spread support. This was not a view which was to be vindicated by the results.
STV is designed to select
a
set
of
most-preferred
candidates
taking into account
the votes of as large
a
section of the electorate as possible. It
is
therefore, on the
face of it, somewhat surprising that it should ever produce a result which provides
proportional representation
ofparties
in any given situation. When it is operated
in the context of
a
more or less established party system it does, however, appear
to do
so.
This tendency
is
dependent on the degree to which a number of relatively
straightforward conditions are met. These conditions basically relate to the way
in which people cast their votes, and to the configuration of the constituencies
which are in practice essential for the operation of the system.
See
C.
OLeary,
The Irish Republic
and
its Experiment with Proportional Representation
(University
of
Notre
Dame
Press,
1-15.
Ibid.,
pp.
4-5.
Pditicnl
Studia,
Vol.
XXIII,
No.
4
(491-500)
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