How generational replacement undermined the electoral resilience of Fianna Fáil

This chapter focuses on party switching. The civil-war cleavage that differentiated the two main Irish parties, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, has been gradually diminishing in importance in recent decades. This trend reached a crescendo in 2011, when the incumbent Fianna Fáil party saw a dramatic decli...

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Main Authors: van der Eijk, Cees, Elkink, Johan A.
Other Authors: Marsh, Michael
Format: Book Section
Published: Oxford University Press 2017
Subjects:
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/38103/
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author van der Eijk, Cees
Elkink, Johan A.
author2 Marsh, Michael
author_facet Marsh, Michael
van der Eijk, Cees
Elkink, Johan A.
author_sort van der Eijk, Cees
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description This chapter focuses on party switching. The civil-war cleavage that differentiated the two main Irish parties, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, has been gradually diminishing in importance in recent decades. This trend reached a crescendo in 2011, when the incumbent Fianna Fáil party saw a dramatic decline in voter support, with swathes of its core voters switching to the main opposition party, Fine Gael. This volatility must be seen from the perspective of a generational replacement. To understand the potential for electoral switching, as opposed to change after the fact, the chapter investigates the configuration of voters’ preferences expressed through propensity to vote questions in the INES. The general framework provides theoretical tools better to understand the scale of Fianna Fáil’s defeat, as unique commitment to that party had declined markedly from the position a generation previously and it was thus more vulnerable to punishment following the crisis.
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publishDate 2017
publisher Oxford University Press
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spelling nottingham-381032020-05-04T18:37:07Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/38103/ How generational replacement undermined the electoral resilience of Fianna Fáil van der Eijk, Cees Elkink, Johan A. This chapter focuses on party switching. The civil-war cleavage that differentiated the two main Irish parties, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, has been gradually diminishing in importance in recent decades. This trend reached a crescendo in 2011, when the incumbent Fianna Fáil party saw a dramatic decline in voter support, with swathes of its core voters switching to the main opposition party, Fine Gael. This volatility must be seen from the perspective of a generational replacement. To understand the potential for electoral switching, as opposed to change after the fact, the chapter investigates the configuration of voters’ preferences expressed through propensity to vote questions in the INES. The general framework provides theoretical tools better to understand the scale of Fianna Fáil’s defeat, as unique commitment to that party had declined markedly from the position a generation previously and it was thus more vulnerable to punishment following the crisis. Oxford University Press Marsh, Michael Farrell, David McElroy, Gail 2017-03-09 Book Section PeerReviewed van der Eijk, Cees and Elkink, Johan A. (2017) How generational replacement undermined the electoral resilience of Fianna Fáil. In: A conservative revolution?: electoral change in 21st century Ireland. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 102-122. ISBN 9780198744030 party switching propensity to vote generational replacement electoral resilience cleavage voting Fianna Fáil Ireland elections http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198744030.001.0001/acprof-9780198744030 doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198744030.001.0001 doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198744030.001.0001
spellingShingle party switching
propensity to vote
generational replacement
electoral resilience
cleavage voting
Fianna Fáil
Ireland
elections
van der Eijk, Cees
Elkink, Johan A.
How generational replacement undermined the electoral resilience of Fianna Fáil
title How generational replacement undermined the electoral resilience of Fianna Fáil
title_full How generational replacement undermined the electoral resilience of Fianna Fáil
title_fullStr How generational replacement undermined the electoral resilience of Fianna Fáil
title_full_unstemmed How generational replacement undermined the electoral resilience of Fianna Fáil
title_short How generational replacement undermined the electoral resilience of Fianna Fáil
title_sort how generational replacement undermined the electoral resilience of fianna fáil
topic party switching
propensity to vote
generational replacement
electoral resilience
cleavage voting
Fianna Fáil
Ireland
elections
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/38103/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/38103/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/38103/