In this article we examine the opinion structure of Irish Labour party members and supporters. Our purpose is to test May's law of curvilinear disparity by dividing party members into two groups as outlined by Kitschelt. By focusing on ideological differences within political parties Kitschelt identifies two types of members: ideologues and pragmatists. We use two individual-level data sets: the Labour Leadership Election Study (LLES) and the Irish National Election Study (INES), to test May's law. We find some limited support for May's law and Kitschelt's extensions to this model.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
CartyR. K. (1981) Party and Parish Pump: Electoral Politics in Ireland. Waterloo ON: Wilfrid Laurier University Press.
2.
CostantiniE. (1963) ‘Intraparty Attitude Conflict: Democratic Party Leadership in California’, Western Political Quarterly, 16 (4), 956–72.
3.
FarrellB. (1970) ‘Labour and the Irish Political System: A Suggested Approach to Analysis’, Economic and Social Review, 1 (4), 477–502.
4.
FitzgeraldP.KennedyF.LyonsP. (2004) ‘Results of a Leadership Election Survey of Party Members: The 2002 Irish Labour Party Leadership Election’, in ScullyR.WebbP.BroughtonD.FisherJ. (eds), British Elections and Parties Review, Vol. 14. London: Frank Cass, pp. 230–44.
5.
GallagherM. (1985) Political Parties in the Republic of Ireland. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
6.
GallagherM.MarshM. (2002) Days of Blue Loyalty: The Politics of Membership of the Fine Gael Party. Dublin: PSAI Press.
7.
GalliganY. (2003) ‘Candidate Selection: More Democratic or More Centrally Controlled’, in GallagherM.MarshM.MitchellP. (eds), How Ireland Voted 2002. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 37–56.
8.
GarvinT. (1974) ‘Political Cleavages, Party Politics, and Urbanisation in Ireland: The Case of the Periphery-dominated Centre’, European Journal of Political Research, 2 (4), 307–27.
9.
GirvinB. (1993) ‘The Referendums on Abortion 1992’, Irish Political Studies, 8, 118–24.
10.
HerreraR.TaylorM. K. (1994) ‘The Structure of Opinion in American Political Parties’, Political Studies, 42 (4), 676–89.
11.
IversenT. (1994) ‘The Logics of Electoral Politics: Spatial, Directional, and Mobilization Effects’, Comparative Political Studies, 27 (2), 155–89.
KennedyF.LyonsP.FitzgeraldP. (2005) ‘The Members of Labour: Backgrounds, Political Views and Attitudes towards Coalition Government and the Party System’, Irish Political Studies, 20 (2), 171–85.
14.
KennedyF.SinnottR. (2006) ‘Irish Social and Political Cleavages’, in GarryJ.HardimanN.PayneD. (eds), Irish Social and Political Attitudes. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, pp. 78–93.
15.
KitscheltH. (1989) ‘The Internal Politics of Parties: The Law of Curvilinear Disparity Revisited’, Political Studies, 37 (3), 400–21.
16.
McCloskeyH.HoffmannP. J.O'HaraR. (1960) ‘Issue Conflict and Consensus among Party Leaders and Followers’, American Political Science Review, 54 (2), 406–27.
17.
MairP. (1987) The Changing Irish Party System: Organisation, Ideology and Electoral Competition. London: Francis Pinter.
18.
MairP.WeeksL. (2005) ‘The Party System’, in CoakleyJ.GallagherM. (eds), Politics in the Republic of Ireland, 4th edition. London: Routledge, pp. 135–59.
19.
ManningM. (1972) Irish Political Parties: An Introduction. Dublin: Gill and Macmillan.
20.
MayJ. D. (1973) ‘Opinion Structure of Political Parties: The Special Law of Curvilinear Disparity’, Political Studies, 21 (2), 135–51.
21.
NarudH. M.SkareA. (1999) ‘Are Party Activists the Party Extremists? The Structure of Opinion in Political Parties’, Scandinavian Political Studies, 22 (1), 44–65.
22.
NorrisP. (1995) ‘May's Law of Curvilinear Disparity Revisited: Leaders, Officers, Members and Voters in British Political Parties’, Party Politics, 1 (1), 29–47.
23.
O'LearyC.HeskethT. (1988) ‘The Irish Abortion and Divorce Referendum Campaigns’, Irish Political Studies, 3, 43–62.
24.
RoseR. (1974) The Problem of Party Government. London: Macmillan.
25.
RumpfE.HepburnA. C. (1977) Nationalism and Socialism in Twentieth-Century Ireland. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press.
26.
SearingD. (1986) ‘A Theory of Political Socialization: Institutional Support and Deradicalization in Britain’, British Journal of Political Science, 16 (3), 341–76.
27.
SeydP.WhiteleyP. F. (1992) Labour's Grass Roots: The Politics of Labour Party Membership. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
28.
SinnottR. (1984) ‘Interpretations of the Irish Party System’, European Journal of Political Research, 12 (3), 289–307.
29.
SinnottR. (1986) ‘Party Differences and Spatial Representation: The Irish Case’, British Journal of Political Science, 16 (2), 217–41.
30.
SinnottR. (1987) ‘The Voters, the Issues and the Party System’, in PennimanH.FarrellB. (eds), Ireland at the Polls, 1981, 1982 and 1987. Durham NC: Duke University Press, pp. 57–103.
31.
SinnottR. (1995) Irish Voters Decide: Voting Behaviour in Elections and Referendums since 1918. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
32.
Van der EijkC. (2001) ‘Measuring Agreement in Ordered Rating Scales’, Quality and Quantity, 35 (3), 327–41.
33.
WhiteleyP. (1983) The Labour Party in Crisis. London: Methuen.
34.
WidfeltA. (1999) ‘Losing Touch? The Political Representativeness of Swedish Parties, 1985–1994’, Scandinavian Political Studies, 22 (4), 307–26.
