PSAI Galway 2025

Abstract

Levels of partisanship are low in Ireland in comparison to other western European democracies. This does not necessarily imply that Irish voters are apathetic: for instance, voters can hold strong negative views of particular parties, even if they lack a positive party attachment.  Negative partisanship has been found to be an important driver of vote choice in other contexts. Drawing on international research, we categorise voters as open partisans, negative partisans, closed partisans or apathetic.  We measure the prevalence of each type of voter in Ireland using data from the 2024 National Election and Democracy Study, and examine the impact of this on political behaviour, including turnout and vote choice. In particular, we test whether holding negative views of a given party increases the likelihood of voting for ideologically opposing parties, or whether it increases the likelihood of voting for that parties’ main rivals for government.