R Costello
Biographic Data
| ID | 24206 |
|---|---|
| NAME | R Costello |
| GIVEN NAMES | R |
| FAMILY NAME | Costello |
| SIGNATURE | COSTELLO R |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Limerick |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-4045-6005 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 21 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 611 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 21 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2008 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 10 |
Ireland: Immigration scuppers the Sinn Féin challenge
Irlande: L’immigration fait échouer le défi Sinn Fein
Auction politics: Party competition and expansionary election promises
Party competition sometimes resembles an auction, where parties seek to ‘buy’ elections through promises of economic largesse. In this article, I argue that whether parties engage in this practice will depend on political circumstances, such as the level of ideological competition. Incentives to promise more to voters will also vary depending on a party's electoral prospects: for parties that expect a significant level of government responsibilit…
How does the composition of the European Parliament shape its role in EU decision-making
If the European Parliament (EP) is responsive to electoral outcomes, then the positions it takes during negotiations on policy issues with other EU institutions will reflect its ideological composition. However, the dominance of a grand coalition of the centrist party groups may limit the extent to which changes in the composition of the EP affect the policy positions that it adopts. The EP may also suffer from an integrationist bias, as further …
Congruence between voters and parties: The role of party‐level issue salience
The level of congruence between parties and their voters can vary greatly from one policy issue to another, which raises questions regarding the effectiveness of political representation. We seek to explain variation in party–voter congruence across issues and parties. We focus on the hypotheses that (1) average proximity between the positions of voters and the party they vote for will be highest on the issues that the party emphasises in the ele…
Issue congruence between voters and parties: Examining the democratic party mandate in Ireland
Political parties often employ the rhetoric of electoral mandates, claiming that the people who voted for them endorsed their policies. However, the level of voter-party issue congruence may vary across parties, issues, and elections; and the views of certain types of voters may be better represented by their party than others. This paper puts forward a series of hypotheses to explain variation in issue congruence, relating to how well-informed v…
Rally around the EU flag: Irish party positions on the EU in the wake of Brexit
When national interests are threatened by an international political crisis, there is often a ‘rally around the flag’ effect among both the public and the political elite, interpreted as a patriotic response to an external threat. Brexit represented a significant threat both to the Irish economy and to the constitutional settlement on the island of Ireland. In contrast to other international crises that have been studied in relation to the rally …
The Fulfillment of Parties’ Election Pledges: A Comparative Study on the Impact of Power Sharing
Why are some parties more likely than others to keep the promises they made during previous election campaigns? This study provides the first large‐scale comparative analysis of pledge fulfillment with common definitions. We study the fulfillment of over 20,000 pledges made in 57 election campaigns in 12 countries, and our findings challenge the common view of parties as promise breakers. Many parties that enter government executives are highly l…
The ideological space in Irish politics: Comparing Voters and Parties
Drawing on an original survey of voters and parties, this article examines the policy space in Irish politics in the context of the 2016 general election. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses show that four broad ideological dimensions structure voters’ policy views across a range of salient issues. These are an economic dimension, a cultural dimension, a religious dimension and an austerity dimension. Comparing the location of voters and…
The miracle of the markets: Identifying key campaign events in the Scottish independence referendum using betting odds
Bicameralism, nationality and party cohesion in the European Parliament
Party cohesion in legislatures is a topic of longstanding concern to political scientists because cohesion facilitates democratic representation. We examine the cohesion of transnational party groups in the European Parliament, which is part of the EU’s bicameral system, and study the oftentimes competing pressures to which MEPs are subject from their EP party groups and national governments. Our explanation focuses on the conditions under which …
Governing together in good and bad economic times: The fulfilment of election pledges in Ireland
The idea that parties make promises to voters during election campaigns and then attempt to fulfil those promises if elected to government is central to the theory and practice of democracy. This study examines how economic conditions affect the fulfilment of parties’ election pledges in Ireland. We formulate and test propositions relating to two aspects of economic conditions that negatively affect the likelihood of pledge fulfilment. The first …
The Strain of Representation: How Parties Represent Diverse Voters in Western and Eastern Europe
An aspect of representation that has received considerable attention in the political science literature is the policy responsiveness of political parties to their voters. Do parties in modern demo
The distribution of power among EU institutions: Who Wins Under Codecision and Why
The codecision procedure was designed to change the distribution of power among the European Union (EU) institutions. In theory, the codecision procedure, at least the amended version introduced by the Amsterdam Treaty that came into effect in 1999, weakened the Commission and placed the Parliament on an equal footing with the Council. We assess how the codecision procedure works in practice using data on the preferences of legislative actors on …
A new dataset on decision-making in the European Union before and after the 2004 and 2007 enlargements (Deuii)
We present a new dataset on decision-making in the European Union (DEUII) that revises and expands a previous dataset. Researchers are using this new dataset to address a range of research questions regarding the inputs, processes and outputs of the EU’s legislative system. The dataset contains information on 331 controversial issues raised by 125 legislative proposals that were introduced between 1996 and 2008. For each of these controversial is…
European Parliament Elections and Political Representation: Policy Congruence between Voters and Parties
It is often said that European Parliament elections fail as an instrument to express the will of the European people. However, while the elections are not contested at the European level and are often dominated by national issues, this does not necessarily imply that they fail to connect policy views of voters and representatives. This article examines policy congruence between voters and candidates, utilising the candidate and voter surveys of t…
The nexus of bicameralism: Rapporteurs’ impact on decision outcomes in the European Union
When the chambers of a bicameral legislature must negotiate to reach a decision outcome, the bargaining strength of each side is affected by the composition of its negotiating delegations. We examine some of the implications of this proposition for legislative negotiations between the European Parliament (EP) and the Council of Ministers. We develop and test hypotheses on how the bargaining success of the EP is affected by the choice of its chief…
Does Bicameralism Promote Stability? Inter-institutional Relations and Coalition Formation in the European Parliament
In the European Parliament, different coalitions form from one vote to the next. To understand the process of coalition formation it is necessary to consider the inter-institutional context in which decisions are made. This paper develops hypotheses regarding how changes in the relations between the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers affect coalition formation in the European Parliament. The hypotheses are tested using roll-call dat…
The policy impact of leadership in committees: Rapporteurs’ influence on the European Parliament’s opinions
What impact do leaders in the European Parliament’s (EP) committees have on the EP’s opinions? This study formulates and tests expectations about the conditions under which rapporteurs influence the EP’s opinions and also about what factors motivate that influence. In line with the informational theory of legislative committees, the most important factor affecting the EP’s opinion is the policy position of the median MEP, not a characteristic of …
Picking your party online – An investigation of Ireland's first online voting advice application
Online voting advice applications (VAAs), which help voters to decide in elections, have become commonplace in many European countries. However, their use and reliability is under-researched. This paper analyses the data generated by a VAA deployed in the run-up to the May 2007 general election in Ireland. The website was designed to allow users to compare their own placement on a number of policy dimensions with those of the main parties competi…
Election Pledges and their Enactment in Coalition Governments: A Comparative Analysis of Ireland
This study examines election pledges and their enactment in Ireland. Much previous research focused on countries where single‐party governments are the norm (the United Kingdom, Canada and Greece), and the presidential system of the United States with separation of powers. The present research draws on evidence from existing studies of pledge enactment in Ireland and the Netherlands. In addition, it adds new evidence on election pledges and their…
The Fulfillment of Parties’ Election Pledges: A Comparative Study on the Impact of Power Sharing
Why are some parties more likely than others to keep the promises they made during previous election campaigns? This study provides the first large‐scale comparative analysis of pledge fulfillment with common definitions. We study the fulfillment of over 20,000 pledges made in 57 election campaigns in 12 countries, and our findings challenge the common view of parties as promise breakers. Many parties that enter government executives are highly l…
European Parliament Elections and Political Representation: Policy Congruence between Voters and Parties
It is often said that European Parliament elections fail as an instrument to express the will of the European people. However, while the elections are not contested at the European level and are often dominated by national issues, this does not necessarily imply that they fail to connect policy views of voters and representatives. This article examines policy congruence between voters and candidates, utilising the candidate and voter surveys of t…
A new dataset on decision-making in the European Union before and after the 2004 and 2007 enlargements (Deuii)
We present a new dataset on decision-making in the European Union (DEUII) that revises and expands a previous dataset. Researchers are using this new dataset to address a range of research questions regarding the inputs, processes and outputs of the EU’s legislative system. The dataset contains information on 331 controversial issues raised by 125 legislative proposals that were introduced between 1996 and 2008. For each of these controversial is…
The distribution of power among EU institutions: Who Wins Under Codecision and Why
The codecision procedure was designed to change the distribution of power among the European Union (EU) institutions. In theory, the codecision procedure, at least the amended version introduced by the Amsterdam Treaty that came into effect in 1999, weakened the Commission and placed the Parliament on an equal footing with the Council. We assess how the codecision procedure works in practice using data on the preferences of legislative actors on …
The nexus of bicameralism: Rapporteurs’ impact on decision outcomes in the European Union
When the chambers of a bicameral legislature must negotiate to reach a decision outcome, the bargaining strength of each side is affected by the composition of its negotiating delegations. We examine some of the implications of this proposition for legislative negotiations between the European Parliament (EP) and the Council of Ministers. We develop and test hypotheses on how the bargaining success of the EP is affected by the choice of its chief…
The policy impact of leadership in committees: Rapporteurs’ influence on the European Parliament’s opinions
What impact do leaders in the European Parliament’s (EP) committees have on the EP’s opinions? This study formulates and tests expectations about the conditions under which rapporteurs influence the EP’s opinions and also about what factors motivate that influence. In line with the informational theory of legislative committees, the most important factor affecting the EP’s opinion is the policy position of the median MEP, not a characteristic of …
Congruence between voters and parties: The role of party‐level issue salience
The level of congruence between parties and their voters can vary greatly from one policy issue to another, which raises questions regarding the effectiveness of political representation. We seek to explain variation in party–voter congruence across issues and parties. We focus on the hypotheses that (1) average proximity between the positions of voters and the party they vote for will be highest on the issues that the party emphasises in the ele…
Bicameralism, nationality and party cohesion in the European Parliament
Party cohesion in legislatures is a topic of longstanding concern to political scientists because cohesion facilitates democratic representation. We examine the cohesion of transnational party groups in the European Parliament, which is part of the EU’s bicameral system, and study the oftentimes competing pressures to which MEPs are subject from their EP party groups and national governments. Our explanation focuses on the conditions under which …
Picking your party online – An investigation of Ireland's first online voting advice application
Online voting advice applications (VAAs), which help voters to decide in elections, have become commonplace in many European countries. However, their use and reliability is under-researched. This paper analyses the data generated by a VAA deployed in the run-up to the May 2007 general election in Ireland. The website was designed to allow users to compare their own placement on a number of policy dimensions with those of the main parties competi…
Does Bicameralism Promote Stability? Inter-institutional Relations and Coalition Formation in the European Parliament
In the European Parliament, different coalitions form from one vote to the next. To understand the process of coalition formation it is necessary to consider the inter-institutional context in which decisions are made. This paper develops hypotheses regarding how changes in the relations between the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers affect coalition formation in the European Parliament. The hypotheses are tested using roll-call dat…
Governing together in good and bad economic times: The fulfilment of election pledges in Ireland
The idea that parties make promises to voters during election campaigns and then attempt to fulfil those promises if elected to government is central to the theory and practice of democracy. This study examines how economic conditions affect the fulfilment of parties’ election pledges in Ireland. We formulate and test propositions relating to two aspects of economic conditions that negatively affect the likelihood of pledge fulfilment. The first …
The ideological space in Irish politics: Comparing Voters and Parties
Drawing on an original survey of voters and parties, this article examines the policy space in Irish politics in the context of the 2016 general election. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses show that four broad ideological dimensions structure voters’ policy views across a range of salient issues. These are an economic dimension, a cultural dimension, a religious dimension and an austerity dimension. Comparing the location of voters and…
How does the composition of the European Parliament shape its role in EU decision-making
If the European Parliament (EP) is responsive to electoral outcomes, then the positions it takes during negotiations on policy issues with other EU institutions will reflect its ideological composition. However, the dominance of a grand coalition of the centrist party groups may limit the extent to which changes in the composition of the EP affect the policy positions that it adopts. The EP may also suffer from an integrationist bias, as further …
Rally around the EU flag: Irish party positions on the EU in the wake of Brexit
When national interests are threatened by an international political crisis, there is often a ‘rally around the flag’ effect among both the public and the political elite, interpreted as a patriotic response to an external threat. Brexit represented a significant threat both to the Irish economy and to the constitutional settlement on the island of Ireland. In contrast to other international crises that have been studied in relation to the rally …
Issue congruence between voters and parties: Examining the democratic party mandate in Ireland
Political parties often employ the rhetoric of electoral mandates, claiming that the people who voted for them endorsed their policies. However, the level of voter-party issue congruence may vary across parties, issues, and elections; and the views of certain types of voters may be better represented by their party than others. This paper puts forward a series of hypotheses to explain variation in issue congruence, relating to how well-informed v…
The miracle of the markets: Identifying key campaign events in the Scottish independence referendum using betting odds
Election Pledges and their Enactment in Coalition Governments: A Comparative Analysis of Ireland
This study examines election pledges and their enactment in Ireland. Much previous research focused on countries where single‐party governments are the norm (the United Kingdom, Canada and Greece), and the presidential system of the United States with separation of powers. The present research draws on evidence from existing studies of pledge enactment in Ireland and the Netherlands. In addition, it adds new evidence on election pledges and their…
Picking your party online – An investigation of Ireland's first online voting advice application
Online voting advice applications (VAAs), which help voters to decide in elections, have become commonplace in many European countries. However, their use and reliability is under-researched. This paper analyses the data generated by a VAA deployed in the run-up to the May 2007 general election in Ireland. The website was designed to allow users to compare their own placement on a number of policy dimensions with those of the main parties competi…
Does Bicameralism Promote Stability? Inter-institutional Relations and Coalition Formation in the European Parliament
In the European Parliament, different coalitions form from one vote to the next. To understand the process of coalition formation it is necessary to consider the inter-institutional context in which decisions are made. This paper develops hypotheses regarding how changes in the relations between the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers affect coalition formation in the European Parliament. The hypotheses are tested using roll-call dat…
The policy impact of leadership in committees: Rapporteurs’ influence on the European Parliament’s opinions
What impact do leaders in the European Parliament’s (EP) committees have on the EP’s opinions? This study formulates and tests expectations about the conditions under which rapporteurs influence the EP’s opinions and also about what factors motivate that influence. In line with the informational theory of legislative committees, the most important factor affecting the EP’s opinion is the policy position of the median MEP, not a characteristic of …
The nexus of bicameralism: Rapporteurs’ impact on decision outcomes in the European Union
When the chambers of a bicameral legislature must negotiate to reach a decision outcome, the bargaining strength of each side is affected by the composition of its negotiating delegations. We examine some of the implications of this proposition for legislative negotiations between the European Parliament (EP) and the Council of Ministers. We develop and test hypotheses on how the bargaining success of the EP is affected by the choice of its chief…
A new dataset on decision-making in the European Union before and after the 2004 and 2007 enlargements (Deuii)
We present a new dataset on decision-making in the European Union (DEUII) that revises and expands a previous dataset. Researchers are using this new dataset to address a range of research questions regarding the inputs, processes and outputs of the EU’s legislative system. The dataset contains information on 331 controversial issues raised by 125 legislative proposals that were introduced between 1996 and 2008. For each of these controversial is…
European Parliament Elections and Political Representation: Policy Congruence between Voters and Parties
It is often said that European Parliament elections fail as an instrument to express the will of the European people. However, while the elections are not contested at the European level and are often dominated by national issues, this does not necessarily imply that they fail to connect policy views of voters and representatives. This article examines policy congruence between voters and candidates, utilising the candidate and voter surveys of t…
The Strain of Representation: How Parties Represent Diverse Voters in Western and Eastern Europe
An aspect of representation that has received considerable attention in the political science literature is the policy responsiveness of political parties to their voters. Do parties in modern demo
The distribution of power among EU institutions: Who Wins Under Codecision and Why
The codecision procedure was designed to change the distribution of power among the European Union (EU) institutions. In theory, the codecision procedure, at least the amended version introduced by the Amsterdam Treaty that came into effect in 1999, weakened the Commission and placed the Parliament on an equal footing with the Council. We assess how the codecision procedure works in practice using data on the preferences of legislative actors on …
Bicameralism, nationality and party cohesion in the European Parliament
Party cohesion in legislatures is a topic of longstanding concern to political scientists because cohesion facilitates democratic representation. We examine the cohesion of transnational party groups in the European Parliament, which is part of the EU’s bicameral system, and study the oftentimes competing pressures to which MEPs are subject from their EP party groups and national governments. Our explanation focuses on the conditions under which …
Governing together in good and bad economic times: The fulfilment of election pledges in Ireland
The idea that parties make promises to voters during election campaigns and then attempt to fulfil those promises if elected to government is central to the theory and practice of democracy. This study examines how economic conditions affect the fulfilment of parties’ election pledges in Ireland. We formulate and test propositions relating to two aspects of economic conditions that negatively affect the likelihood of pledge fulfilment. The first …
The Fulfillment of Parties’ Election Pledges: A Comparative Study on the Impact of Power Sharing
Why are some parties more likely than others to keep the promises they made during previous election campaigns? This study provides the first large‐scale comparative analysis of pledge fulfillment with common definitions. We study the fulfillment of over 20,000 pledges made in 57 election campaigns in 12 countries, and our findings challenge the common view of parties as promise breakers. Many parties that enter government executives are highly l…
The ideological space in Irish politics: Comparing Voters and Parties
Drawing on an original survey of voters and parties, this article examines the policy space in Irish politics in the context of the 2016 general election. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses show that four broad ideological dimensions structure voters’ policy views across a range of salient issues. These are an economic dimension, a cultural dimension, a religious dimension and an austerity dimension. Comparing the location of voters and…
The miracle of the markets: Identifying key campaign events in the Scottish independence referendum using betting odds
Rally around the EU flag: Irish party positions on the EU in the wake of Brexit
When national interests are threatened by an international political crisis, there is often a ‘rally around the flag’ effect among both the public and the political elite, interpreted as a patriotic response to an external threat. Brexit represented a significant threat both to the Irish economy and to the constitutional settlement on the island of Ireland. In contrast to other international crises that have been studied in relation to the rally …
Congruence between voters and parties: The role of party‐level issue salience
The level of congruence between parties and their voters can vary greatly from one policy issue to another, which raises questions regarding the effectiveness of political representation. We seek to explain variation in party–voter congruence across issues and parties. We focus on the hypotheses that (1) average proximity between the positions of voters and the party they vote for will be highest on the issues that the party emphasises in the ele…
Issue congruence between voters and parties: Examining the democratic party mandate in Ireland
Political parties often employ the rhetoric of electoral mandates, claiming that the people who voted for them endorsed their policies. However, the level of voter-party issue congruence may vary across parties, issues, and elections; and the views of certain types of voters may be better represented by their party than others. This paper puts forward a series of hypotheses to explain variation in issue congruence, relating to how well-informed v…
How does the composition of the European Parliament shape its role in EU decision-making
If the European Parliament (EP) is responsive to electoral outcomes, then the positions it takes during negotiations on policy issues with other EU institutions will reflect its ideological composition. However, the dominance of a grand coalition of the centrist party groups may limit the extent to which changes in the composition of the EP affect the policy positions that it adopts. The EP may also suffer from an integrationist bias, as further …
Auction politics: Party competition and expansionary election promises
Party competition sometimes resembles an auction, where parties seek to ‘buy’ elections through promises of economic largesse. In this article, I argue that whether parties engage in this practice will depend on political circumstances, such as the level of ideological competition. Incentives to promise more to voters will also vary depending on a party's electoral prospects: for parties that expect a significant level of government responsibilit…
Ireland: Immigration scuppers the Sinn Féin challenge
Irlande: L’immigration fait échouer le défi Sinn Fein
Law (21 works) · Political science (21 works) · Electoral Systems and Political Participation (18 works) · Politics (18 works) · Law (17 works) · Political economy (13 works) · Economics (12 works) · Parliament (9 works) · Public Administration (9 works) · Political Influence and Corporate Strategies (8 works)