This country has never had a Thatcher imposed onitbya minority – and I think that’s a good thing
IF YOU were a Trumpian climate change denier who didn’t really want Ireland to actually do anything about it you could do an awful lot worse than back the fundamentalist wing of the Green Party. It sounds counter-intuitive, but if the Fianna Fáil/Fine Gael/Green programme for government is adopted there will be significant climate change policies implemented, including carbon taxation. It may not be the total of what the Green Party is looking for but it is certainly a movement in the right direction, half a loaf as opposed to no loaf. Even the fundamentalists (Deep Greens?) would surely admit that if the party does not get into government, less green-friendly policies will be implemented, especially on the issue of road building. If Deep Greens decide to become Alphabet Left-style armchair purists and sideline hand-wringers, the better it is for the extreme anti-climate change action, right.
It’s a choice between putting one’s hand to the wheel or engaging in self-indulgent political self-pleasuring.
The rise of the Deep Greens is a symptom of a broader problem that has emerged in recent years in Irish politics. There’s a growing number of Irish voters who seem to believe that the vote they cast for their party is not merely to ensure seats at the national table for that party (and their values) but a vote for their opinions (their minority opinions) to be imposed on the majority.
That’s not the system we operate in this pretty pristine democracy.
The British go into their polling booths, mark an X on their ballot paper, and then the national raffle that is their first-pastthe-post voting system throws up (literally) an often arbitrary but usually decisive result.
They get a government out of it, regardless of who the majority did or didn’t vote for.
In Ireland, we don’t elect governments. We elect a representative parliament where the great, great majority get representation and then those representatives cobble together a Blu-Tack and Sellotape contraption to run the country.
Often it ain’t pretty, but it is the certified democratic and fair system we have, and leaves the majority with someone in that national parliament who represents them to some degree, or at least more than someone else.
If the Irish people choose in their wisdom to give a single party or alliance of parties an overall majority that is their right and (unlike in the UK) their ability.
Before you ask, coming first in terms of votes or seats does not make you special or give you some sort of electoral prima nocta or special privileges to overrule the majority of the Irish people. Not Sinn Féin down here and not the DUP up North.
We form our governments through a Taoiseach who, at most, is not opposed by a majority of Dáil Éireann.
That means that a majority of members of the Dáil accept that they did not win majority support in the general election for their political positions. But they also accept, nevertheless, through their election, that their political position has a right to a place at the table and for it to be given due consideration. That’s what coalition negotiations are: where the majority membership of the national parliament attempts to find a programme agreeable to the majority.
Those people who complain about compromise and “sell-outs” have a right to announce that they’d prefer no policy gains to compromised policies. That’s fair enough.
One assumes that’s what people who vote Alphabet Left are voting for: the dance of the unsullied political eunuch.
What they don’t have is a right to demand that the majority accept all their policies without yield.
You have to win a majority of seats in our proportionate and fair parliament yourself for that.
If we wished, we could change our political system to permit single parties to win overall majorities without a majority of the votes of the Irish people.
We could introduce first past the post (FPTP), although I suspect Fianna Fáil is no longer an advocate, and be careful what you wish for.
FPTP could give you a Sinn Féin majority, but it could also give you a Fine Gael one.
This country has never had a Thatcher or Castro imposed on it by a minority.
Personally, I think that’s a good thing.
Coming first in terms of seats doesn’t give you special privileges to overrule the majority of the Irish people
Our system is not to directly elect a government. But if voters want to actually vote on who is going to be in government, that’s a whole different ballgame.
That means being able to effectively vote on a pre-baked coalition, which would require parties to formally commit pre-polling day.
Of course, we could have a Greek/Malta style top-up system of extra seats for the party, or declared alliance of parties, that wins the most seats or votes, thus guaranteeing a majority.
If there was a chance of extra seats for the bloc that comes first, then maybe parties would see an incentive to declare beforehand.
It would require radical constitutional change, and I suspect the Irish electorate would reject it whilst constantly complaining that they never get the government they voted for.
But if the numbers of TDs entering Dáil Éireann with no real desire to ever make an unpopular decision continues to rise, we may one day have no choice but to design a system that effectively forces a party or parties into government.