Abstract
This article analyses the relationship between majority rule and the stabilisation of democracy in the Irish Free State 1922–1937. It questions the conventional equation of single‐party government and a concentrated party system with democratic stability. Rather it argues the while single‐party government was a source of stability, a bi‐polar pattern of party competition was a source of instability. Multi‐party competition under STV was conducive to stabilisation but coalition governments did not emerge because of the majoritarian preferences of the civil war parties. The efficacy of majority rule in resolving the Treaty issue is related to (a) the prior common ground existing between the two sides and, (b) the number of political issues at stake in the Free State.
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