Get the Party Started: Development of Political Party Legislative Dynamics in the Irish Free State Seanad (1922–36)

Journal article

Sircar, Indraneel & Bjørn Høyland (2010) Get the Party Started: Development of Political Party Legislative Dynamics in the Irish Free State Seanad (1922–36), Party Politics 16 (1): 89–110.

Download Final publication
.pdf

This is the Version of Record of the publication, available here in accordance with the publisher’s self-archiving policy. This version is free to view and download for private research and study only. This publication may be subject to copyright: please visit the publisher’s website for details. All rights reserved.

Read the article here

In this article, we investigate the effect of political parties on legislative behaviour. We compile and analyse a unique dataset of all roll-call votes for all the sessions of the Irish Free State Seanad (the Upper Chamber in the legislature, 1922–36). The development of legislative parties inside the Irish Seanad led to the formation of cohesive voting blocs after 1928. This caused dramatic shifts in the rank-ordering of members and changed the coalition pattern. The establishment of disciplined parties also sealed the fate of the legislature when the Fianna Fáil party, hostile to the Free State Seanad, became an organized force inside the institution.

An error has occurred. This application may no longer respond until reloaded. Reload 🗙