My attention was drawn to Ireland by footnotes, writes the author. Over and over again the literature of comparative politics noted simply except in Ireland .... The question that puzzled me was, Why should this be so?

Professor Carty s answers to the question appear in this detailed study that sheds new light on the question of establishing democratic politics after a war of independence, on the impact of electoral laws on party competition, on the social bases of political competition, and on the way political machines work in modern democracies. As a case study the book also...