GAIL MCELROY
Trinity College, Dublin
ABOUT ME
Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
I am a Professor in Political Science at Trinity College Dublin. My primary research interests are in the fields of legislative behaviour, party politics, electoral systems and European Union politics. I am also actively involved in the Irish National Election Study and the Irish Candidates Study and recent published work in this area explores the continued under-representation of women in politics.
RECENT PUBLISHED WORK
VOTER EXPECTATIONS OF GOVERNMENT FORMATION IN COALITION SYSTEMS
Can voters in multi-party systems predict which coalition will form the government with any degree of accuracy? We examine the relative effects of individual level attributes (e.g. education, cognitive mobilization) versus contextual factors ) in 19 German state elections and 3 German general elections between 2009 and 2017.
European Journal of Political Research (2022)
CAMPAIGNS AND THE SELECTION OF POLICY-SEEKING REPRESENTATIVES
Legislative Studies Quarterly 2020
Can voters learn meaningful information about candidates from their electoral campaigns? As with job market hiring, voters, like employers, cannot know the productivity of candidates, especially challengers, when they elect them. The real productivity of representatives only reveals itself after the election. We explore if the information revealed during the “hiring process” is a good signal of the legislative effort of elected representatives.
VOTER PREFERENCES AND PARTY LOYALTY UNDER CUMULATIVE VOTING
In this paper we examine what happens when cumulative voting is introduced in two German states. Even when we allow for tactical considerations, we find that the principle of unconstrained choice is not widely embraced by voters.
Electoral Studies 2018
In 2016 the Republic of Ireland joined over fifty countries worldwide in the adoption of candidate gender quotas. This sudden influx of a very large number of female nominees into the candidate pool offers us an excellent opportunity to definitively examine whether Irish voters are truly gender blind.In 2016 the Republic of Ireland joined over fifty countries worldwide in the adoption of candidate gender quotas.
2018
A Conservative Revolution? examines underlying voter attitudes in the Republic of Ireland in the period 2002-11. Drawing on three national election studies the book follows party system evolution and voter behaviour from boom to bust.
2017
Party competition in most industrialized democracies is defined in terms of a general left-right rivalry. But amongst established democracies, Ireland has traditionally been the odd one out. This chapter examines if the terms Left and Right are any more consequential to the Irish electorate in the 21st century and whether or not there is underlying ideological substance to their usage.
2017
Get in touch to learn more.
June 2019-
DEAN OF THE FACULTY OF ARTS, HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES
July 2015 - May 2019
HEAD OF THE SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND PHILOSPHY
July 2013 - June 2015
HEAD OF THE DEPT. OF POLITICAL SCIENCE
GET IN TOUCH
Room 2013 Arts Block, Trinity College, Dublin
mcelroy(AT)tcd.ie
+353 (0) 1 8961200
INTERVIEW WITH GAIL MCELROY ON CHANGES IN HIGHER EDUCATION
June 10, 2028
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UNIVERSITY HONORS DEDICATED ACADEMIC GAIL MCELROY
June 10, 2028
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GAIL MCELROY UPSETS FIELD WITH NEW RESEARCH
June 10, 2028
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