Henry Grattan Lecture - Change and the Political System in the Aftermath of the 2011 Election
-
Speaker: Professor Michael Gallagher, Head of Political Science Department, Trinity College Dublin
-
Date: Wednesday 30 March 2011 from 6.30 to 8.00pm
-
Venue:Jonathan Swift Theatre (Room 2041A), Arts Building, Trinity College Dublin
As part of the 2011 Henry Grattan Lecture Series, Professor Michael Gallagher delivered a public lecture which examined the implications for the political system of the economic crisis and of the 2011 general election.
This talk will evaluate the 2011 election results and its apparent transformation of the Irish party system, highlighting the exceptional nature of the context not only in the Irish context but also in the broader context of elections worldwide. It examines the changing pattern of party support, not just in overall terms but with a focus on sub-group variation, identifying the factors that produced such a large degree of inter-election volatility. The talk will address the debate concerning the necessity or desirability of fundamental political reform, and consider whether reform is likely to be as high on the political agenda after the election as seemed likely before the election.
Presentation
Speaker Biography
Michael Gallagher is Professor of Comparative Politics in the Department of Political Science, Trinity College, University of Dublin. He has also been a visiting professor at New York University, the City University of Hong Kong, and the University of Lille. He is co-editor of the forthcoming How Ireland Voted 2011 (Palgrave Macmillan, 2011), and of Politics in the Republic of Ireland (5th edition, Routledge, 2010), The Politics of Electoral Systems (Oxford, 2008), How Ireland Voted 2007 (Palgrave Macmillan, 2008), The Referendum Experience in Europe (Palgrave Macmillan, 1996) and Candidate Selection in Comparative Perspective (Sage, 1988). His research interests include electoral systems and political parties.