Party Policies

PGL

I'm a complete novice to politics, with no preference to any party at present. This is my first venture into the Politics forum, so apologies if this question has been asked before:

Can someone please point me in the right direction to a definitive (and impartial) outline of the policies of all of the Irish political parties in order to help me make up my mind which party aligns closest with my values and beliefs.

cheers

is_that_so

I would suggest you go to their respective sites. Even if it is not completely impartial it will list their "current" policies. Take a look at the Useful Links sticky above for party websites.

Iwasfrozen

Fianna Fáil - Centre Right, Populist, Free market advocator.
Fine Gael - Centre Right, Christian conservative, Free market advocator.
Labour - Centre Left, Liberalist, Social democracy.
Sine Fein - Far Left, Nationalism, Democratic Socialism.
Socialist Party - Far Left, Liberalism, Marxist Socialism.
There you go, If you want me to explain any of those terms just ask.

nellocon

I am also interested in finding out this kind of information. I do alot of reading on politics lately but i cant really decide on who is the best political party for me.

Just thought i mention it as it might be a good idea to help out the novices who poke around this forum.

Iwasfrozen

Here's a basic summary of each parties position on the political compass.
Hope that helps.

Max Power1

Another relative n00b question. What (apart from being anti-lisbon), if any does exist, is Libertas' agenda as a party? Or are they just running in the European elections?

Iwasfrozen

Another relative n00b question. What (apart from being anti-lisbon), if any does exist, is Libertas' agenda as a party? Or are they just running in the European elections?

We don't really know Libertas's agenda very well, this has lead to many conspiracy theories about Ganley's connection with the U.S military etc. but such stories should be taken with a pinch of salt.
Libertas are mainly, Euroskeptic, populism, Centre Right, free market advocators.

PGL

fair play to you Iwasfrozen!

as i said i am a novice, and as you have already kindly offered, could you explain terms such as right, left, centre, far, authoritarian, libertarian, socialist, populist etc etc

thanks in advance for your help!

Iwasfrozen wrote: »

Here's a basic summary of each parties position on the political compass.
Hope that helps.

turgon

Irish political parties having long term policies? Since when?!!

Dero

PGL wrote: »

fair play to you Iwasfrozen!

as i said i am a novice, and as you have already kindly offered, could you explain terms such as right, left, centre, far, authoritarian, libertarian, socialist, populist etc etc

thanks in advance for your help!

Go to the Political Compass site and take the test. This will give your own position on the above graph, which will make it easier to see which parties align with your own beliefs.

Dr. Baltar

I just had my dad take the political compass only to discover that he was on the same anti-business level as Sinn Féin but socially much more authoritarian than Fianna Fáil.

I was around the same Area as the Green Party but Socially much more left wing.

Bit of a difference lol.

Time Magazine

Dero wrote: »

Go to the Political Compass site and take the test. This will give your own position on the above graph, which will make it easier to see which parties align with your own beliefs.

I was prefer EUProfiler.

PGL wrote:

as i said i am a novice, and as you have already kindly offered, could you explain terms such as right, left, centre, far, authoritarian, libertarian, socialist, populist etc etc

These are rough definitions that I'm trying to make as fair and unbiased as possible.

As a general rule "right-wing" means emphasising the rights of the individual, "left-wing" means putting what's best for society ahead of the individual. So a typically right-wing view is for low taxes, but left-wing would support higher taxes. Someone in the centre, like most people in Ireland, are somewhere in between.

Authoritarian means they want strict rules, like banning personal use of cannabis. Liberal means less strict rules, like allowing personal use of cannabis.

Populist sort of means they don't have any set policies, but they change with the mood of the country to be popular. It's a bit of a slur/insult to a party to call them populist; it sort of means they don't "stand" for anything.

Socialist is an extreme left-wing view, where as a general rule they want really high taxes so that everyone gets the same take-home pay regardless.

Generally people split political views into two areas: economics and political. So if you're economically right-wing, you want low taxes, etc. If you're economically left-wing, you want higher dole, etc. If you're politically left-wing, you probably want things like cannabis and abortion legalised.

The kind of confusing bit is where you could be economically right-wing (want low taxes) but also politically left-wing (want abortion legalised), or vice versa!

The diagram posted by Iwasfrozen has these two sections. So Labour are more libertarian than Fine Gael because they're more pro-choice than pro-life, etc. Labour are also more economically left-wing, because they want higher taxes. The Socialists and PDs (RIP :pac:) are roughly equal in terms of the rights of the individual, but miles apart in what tax rates they want.

Rosahane

The test put be exactly over Sinn Fein!
Weird, since I'm a member of Fine Gael!

Dero

The Economist wrote: »

I was prefer EUProfiler.

Yes, so do I, but I couldn't remember the URL at the time. As the graph looked to be from politicalcompass.org, I went with that.

irish_bob

Iwasfrozen wrote: »

Fianna Fáil - Centre Right, Populist, Free market advocator.
Fine Gael - Centre Right, Christian conservative, Free market advocator.
Labour - Centre Left, Liberalist, Social democracy.
Sine Fein - Far Left, Nationalism, Democratic Socialism.
Socialist Party - Far Left, Liberalism, Marxist Socialism.
There you go, If you want me to explain any of those terms just ask.

fianna fail are permanently populist but thier more centre left than centre right most of the time