A comparative study of the UK and the Republic of Ireland (Option B): comparing the two constitutions, the legislatures (Parliament and the Oireachtas), the executives (Prime Minister and Taoiseach, and the heads of state), the judiciaries, and the wider political process of elections, parties and referendums.

What this dot point is asking

You need to compare the UK and the Republic of Ireland (Option B) across their constitutions, legislatures (Parliament and the Oireachtas), executives (Prime Minister and Taoiseach) and heads of state, judiciaries, and wider political process (elections, parties and referendums). The CCEA A2 1 paper rewards explicit comparison and an understanding of how a shared parliamentary form coexists with sharply different constitutional and electoral foundations.

Comparing the constitutions

The foundational contrast mirrors the UK-USA one:

• The Republic of Ireland has a codified, entrenched constitution, Bunreacht na hEireann (1937), which is the supreme law, can be amended only by referendum, and is enforced by the courts.
• The UK has an uncodified, unentrenched constitution based on parliamentary sovereignty, changeable by an ordinary Act of Parliament.

So Ireland, like the USA, locates supremacy in a written constitution protected by a special amendment procedure, while the UK locates it in Parliament.

Comparing the legislatures

Comparative points:

• Lower houses. Both the Dail and the Commons are the dominant, elected chambers that sustain the government; but the Dail is elected by proportional STV and the Commons by first-past-the-post.
• Upper houses. Both upper houses are weaker and largely revising: the Seanad is partly indirectly elected and partly nominated; the Lords is appointed. Neither can ultimately block the lower house.

Comparing the executives and heads of state

The executives are similar in form, the heads of state very different:

• Heads of government. The Taoiseach (Irish Prime Minister) and the UK Prime Minister are both heads of government who lead the largest party or coalition in the lower house and depend on its confidence. A key difference is that Irish governments are usually coalitions (because STV rarely gives one party a majority), while UK governments are usually single-party.
• Heads of state. Ireland has a directly elected President with a fixed seven-year term, a largely ceremonial role but with some reserve powers (for example referring bills to the Supreme Court). The UK has a hereditary monarch as head of state, also largely ceremonial, exercising functions on ministerial advice.

Comparing the judiciaries

The judiciaries differ exactly as the constitutions do:

• The Irish Supreme Court exercises judicial review over the codified constitution and can strike down legislation that is unconstitutional, making it a guardian of the constitution.
• The UK Supreme Court cannot overturn primary legislation because Parliament is sovereign; it interprets law and rules on devolution and rights but is ultimately subordinate to Parliament.

Comparing the political process

The wider process contrasts electoral systems and direct democracy:

• Electoral systems. Ireland uses proportional STV for the Dail, producing multi-party coalition politics; the UK uses FPTP, producing a broadly two-party, usually single-party result.
• Party systems. Ireland's traditional parties (such as Fianna Fail and Fine Gael) emerged from the Civil War divide rather than a clear left-right split, with newer parties and Sinn Fein reshaping the system; the UK's Conservative-Labour system is more clearly left-right.
• Referendums. Ireland uses referendums frequently and by constitutional requirement (every constitutional amendment needs one, for example on abortion or same-sex marriage); the UK uses them occasionally and advisorily, with no legal requirement.

Examples in context

A model A2 paragraph might read: "The UK and the Republic of Ireland are often assumed to be very similar, and at the level of form they are: both are parliamentary democracies in which a head of government leads the dominant lower house and survives only while it retains confidence, both have a weaker second chamber and a largely ceremonial head of state, and both share a long common political heritage. Beneath the form, however, the foundations diverge sharply. Ireland's politics rests on a codified constitution amendable only by referendum, an elected President, and a proportional electoral system that makes coalition government the norm; the UK's rests on parliamentary sovereignty, a hereditary monarch, and a majoritarian system that usually delivers single-party government. The judgement, therefore, is that the two systems are similar in their parliamentary form but markedly different in their constitutional and electoral foundations." This balances similarity and difference and reaches a verdict.

Try this

Q1. Name the lower house of the Irish parliament and the electoral system used to elect it. [2 marks]

• Cue. The Dail Eireann, elected by the single transferable vote.

Q2. Explain why Ireland usually has coalition government while the UK usually has single-party government. [6 marks]

• Cue. Ireland's proportional STV rarely gives one party a majority, so coalitions form, whereas the UK's first-past-the-post usually manufactures a single-party majority.

Q3. To what extent are the UK and the Republic of Ireland more similar than different in their government and politics? [24 marks]

• Cue. Weigh the shared parliamentary form, weaker second chambers and ceremonial heads of state against the codified constitution, elected President, STV and coalition government in Ireland. Reach a substantiated judgement.