The Irish Electoral System - STV, Independents and forming a Government after the Election

The Institute for European Studies of the University of Malta is hosting Dr Liam Weeks from the Department of Government, University College Cork, Ireland who will be speaking on three important themes of interest to scholars, students and members of the public wishing to know more about the Irish electoral system which bears a canny resemblance to the Maltese one. 

Dr Weeks is visiting Malta on an ERASMUS Staff Teaching assignment managed by the European Commission. He will be speaking on the following themes:

Tomorrow, Tuesday 5 April 2016 from 13:00 to 15:00, in the Students' House Common Room - “Is the Party Over: the role of Independents in Irish Politics”

Also Tomorrow, Tuesday 5 April 2016 from 17:30 to 19:30 at the European Documentation Centre (EDC), Institute for European Studies, University of Malta, Tal-Qroqq, Msida: “The Irish Election and its Aftermath”

Wednesday 6 April from 10:00 to 12:00 in Hall B1, M.A. Vassalli Conference Centre - Gateway Building (GWB1), “Understanding Single Transferable Voting Irish Style”

Whoever is interested in these lectures, including members of the public, please reserve a place by emailing Stephania Vella or phone +356 2340 2001 / 2998. Places are limited.

The Maltese electoral system is very similar to the Irish one, though both have evolved in different directions. In the Maltese debate there has been frequent reference to the need of reforming our electoral system, the emergence of a third party, the role of independents and the need of stable governance. Analyzing these issues in a comparative setting provides useful insights to the local debate and while extending the understanding of the Irish system and politics. 

Liam Weeks has been a full-time lecturer in the Department of Government since September 2006. He is also an Honorary Fellow at the Department of Politics and International Relations at Macquarie University, Sydney since 2012. He is a graduate of Trinity College Dublin, having been conferred with a BA in History & Political Science (2001), a Postgraduate Diploma in Statistics (2006) and a PhD in Political Science (2008). In 2010 he was conferred with a Postgraduate Certificate in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education from University College Cork.

He has been a visiting fellow at the Department of Politics and International Relations at Macquarie University (Sydney), the Department of Government and International Relations at the University of Sydney, the Institute of Social Research in Swinburne University of Technology (Melbourne), the University of the South Pacific, and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. In 2016 he will be a visiting professor at Waseda University, Tokyo.

He is a recipient of an Irish Research Council Marie Curie Fellowship, an Irish Research Council New Foundations Grant, a Royal Irish Academy Mobility Grant, a Visiting Fellowship at Waseda University and Swinburne University, and a Government of Ireland postgraduate scholarship from the Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences. He has also received Erasmus grants from the European Union for training and teaching activities at University College London and the University of Malta, and has taught on the Small Island States summer school at the University of Reykavik, Iceland.

His main research interests include comparative politics, but particularly electoral systems, political parties and voting behaviour. He is interested in most aspects of Irish politics.

His first book (co-authored with Aodh Quinlivan), All Politics is Local. A Guide to Local Elections in Ireland, was published in 2009 by Collins Press, and was serialised on the elections website of the national broadcaster (RTE). His second (co-edited with Alistair Clark), Radical or Redundant? Minor Parties in Irish political life, was published by The History Press in 2012, and was also a special issue with Irish Political Studies. His third book, Independents in Irish democracy, will be published in 2016/7 by Manchester University Press. His research has been published in journals such as the Australian Journal of Political Science, Government and Opposition, Party Politics, Parliamentary Affairs, Representation, Comparative European Politics and Irish Political Studies. His other publications include chapters on the party system in the leading textbook on Irish politics, Politics in the Republic of Ireland, on candidate selection, Senate elections, and independents in various volumes of How Ireland Voted, and on the electoral system in The House of the Oireachtas (Edited by Muiris MacCarthaigh and Eoin O'Malley). He has also been a co-editor of the European Journal of Political Research’s Political Data Yearbook since 2013.

His work has been cited in Irish parliamentary debates, he has appeared before parliamentary committees in hearings on the electoral commission and the electoral system, has addressed meetings of parliamentary parties and other members of parliament, has written opinion pieces for The Irish Times, The Irish Examiner, The Sunday Business Post and other broadsheets, has had his work cited in the Sunday Independent, Irish Independent, The Sunday Times and Sunday Tribune, and has regularly appeared on RTE and Newstalk to discuss his research, and as an elections analyst.

He is director of the MSc (Government) and is the first port of call if you have any questions about this programme. He is interested in supervising PhD students in the areas of comparative and Irish politics.