Constituency Campaigning in Ireland Under STV: The Perspective of the Candidates

Abstract

This paper uses the Irish component of the Comparative Candidate Survey project to explore constituency level campaigns in Ireland. In the context of generalisations about candidate-centred politics, it addresses three questions: how far do local campaigns focus on the candidates themselves, what is the role of the candidates in obtaining the resources used in the campaign, and what is the impact of local candidates and their activities on the vote choice. The data suggest the great importance of local candidates and their activities in campaigns. Candidates are local, embedded in the communities, and most of the campaign is designed to ensure the candidate’s name is well known to voters by the time they make their choice. While party labels may be of huge importance in electoral choice, candidates compete with one another, within and across parties for support and in general their activities are designed to showcase them rather than their parties. A well-resourced campaign has a very significant association with success, particularly in the case of non-Incumbent candidates. This is not to say that a national media campaign, or a focus on party leaders does not takes place, nor that the national campaign has no impact. Rather it demonstrates how the local supplements the national, and the local campaigns take their own form and have their own style.