Political Institutions: Elections, Parliaments and Parties

Research in this area examines how political institutions shape democratic life, with a particular focus on elections, legislatures, and political parties.

Overview

The Department has particular strengths in the comparative study of elections, electoral systems, voting behaviour, parliamentary behaviour, religion and politics, and party membership. Members have published extensively in these areas. The Department is home to two archives of Irish survey data - the Irish National Election Study (INES) and the Irish Opinion Poll Archive - as well as a database of electoral system indices, which together support a wide range of empirical research on political institutions.