Kavanagh, Adrian
(2015)
An evolving political landscape:
Political reform, boundary changes
and the 2014 local elections.
Administration, 63.
pp. 59-77.
ISSN 2449-9471
Abstract
This paper reviews the May 2014 local election contests in the
Republic of Ireland, while also offering a brief overview of the contests
in Northern Ireland. These local elections took place in the context of
radical changes to local government structures on both sides of the
border – changes which would frame the types of choices open to
voters at the May 2014 contests. The new – and generally larger –
constituency areas opened up opportunity spaces for new candidates
(including new female candidates) to participate in local electoral
politics, although these opportunities, in turn, were very much framed
by geography. The overall reduction in local representation levels in
rural areas in the Republic of Ireland meant that incumbency factors
acted as significant brakes on the entry of new candidates in these
areas. The radically changing political landscape associated with the
era of austerity politics saw a major swing against the government
parties in the Republic of Ireland, with notable gains made by Sinn
Féin and a number of other anti-establishment parties and groupings.
These changes have brought about the formation of new alliances to control different local authorities, which, in turn, have posed an
increasing set of challenges in terms of the governance of such
councils, as evident in a number of conflicts over council budgets in
the winter of 2014.
| Item Type: |
Article
|
| Keywords: |
Putting People First; election boundaries; local elections;
voter turnout; |
| Academic Unit: |
Faculty of Social Sciences > Geography |
| Item ID: |
8830 |
| Identification Number: |
https://doi.org/10.1515/admin-2015-0010 |
| Depositing User: |
Adrian Kavanagh
|
| Date Deposited: |
13 Sep 2017 16:46 |
| Journal or Publication Title: |
Administration |
| Publisher: |
De Gruyter Open |
| Refereed: |
Yes |
| URI: |
|
| Use Licence: |
This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available
here |
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